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BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 
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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


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LECTURES 


UN 


THE  REBELLION.  I 

SUBJECTS : 

HOW  WE  GOT  IN. 
HOW    TO    GET    OUT. 

DELIVERED  AT 

TEMPERANCE  HALL,  TRENTON,  N.  J., 

BY  REV.  1.  W.  WILEY,  A.M.,  M.  D. 

REPORTED     BY    JAMES    R  I  S  T  I  N  E .     A.  M.. 


For  tlio  Kenofii:  of  tlie 


<    o  mini  >.-*  ion. 


SECOND    EDITION. 


TRENTON,  N.  J. 
THOMAS     U.     BAKER,    PRINTER 

1864. 


TWO     LECTURES 


ON 


THE  REBELLION. 

"V 

SUBJECTS  : 

HOW  WE  GOT  IN. 
HOW    TO    GET    OUT. 


DELIVERED  AT 


TEMPERANCE  HALL,  TRENTON,  N.  J., 


BY  REV.  iv-W.  WILEY,  A.  M.,  M.  D. 


REPORTED    BY    JAMES    RISTINE,    A.M., 


tlie  Benefit  of  tlie  Sanitary  Commission. 


SECOND    EDITION. 


TRENTON,  N.  J. 
THOMAS    U.    BAKER,    PRINTER, 

1864. 


£  •+$-«• 


NW67 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


PREFACE. 

The  following  Lectures  were  delivered  at  the  request 
of  many  citizens  of  Trenton,  in  behalf  of  the  Sanitary 
Commission.  The  subjects  of  the  Lectures  were  also 
assigned  me,  almost  in  the  words  which  I  have  used  in 
their  titles.  Ill  health  prevented  me  from  any  extended 
preparation  for  them,  and  they  were  delivered  extempo- 
raneously, being  taken  down  by  Mr.  Ristine,  with  great 
accuracy,  as  they  were  spoken.  In  this  form  they  ap- 
pear ;  I  have  made  but  few  changes  in  the  reported  copy, 
preferring  that  they  should  go  forth  as  the  free  and 
spontaneous  utterance  of  the  occasion.  As  such,  of 
course,  they  lay  no  claim  to  any  literary  merit,  nor  do  I 
hold  myself  responsible  for  their  publication,  this  being 
the  work  of  the  Committee.  If  their  delivery  in  Tem- 
perance Hall,  or  their  subsequent  publication  and  circu- 
lation, shall  in  any  way  contribute  to  a  better  under- 
standing of  our  present  struggle,  and  to  a  more  earnest 
loyalty  to  our  noble  government,  I  shall  be  abundantly 
compensated  for  all  part  I  have  had  in  the  work. 

I.  W.  WILEY. 

TRENTON,  March  1,  18C4. 


HOW    WE    GOT 


LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN,  FELLOW  CITIZENS  : 

I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  meet  you  on  this  occasion,  after  having  been 
under  the  necessity  of  disappointing  you  some  weeks  ago.  I  have  much 
recovered  my  health,  but  still  am  laboring  under  some  difficulties,  and 
shall  speak  to-night  somewhat  under  embarrassment  on  account  of  that 
illness. 

There  are  speakers  whom  we  have  heard,  who  always  have  to  say 
something  before  they  begin ;  and  it  seems  to  me  altogether  right  and 
necessary  that  I  should  say  something  of  my  personal  character,  before 
entering  directly  upon  the  subject  of  niy  lecture. 

I  have  been  invited  by  some  citizens  of  Trenton  to  deliver  these  two 
lectures,  or  otherwise  I  would  much  rather  have  remained  at  home,  and 
kept  still ;  but  being  called  upon  for  this  service,  I  am  ready  to  render 
this,  as  all  other  services  in  my  power,  to  promote  the  welfare  of  our 
country ;  to  lead  to  a  better  understanding  of  the  difficulties  we  are 
in ;  to  point,  if  possible,  to  the  way  to  get  out,  and  in  any  way  to  con- 
tribute to  the  establishment  and  perpetuity  of  our  great  and  good  go- 
vernment. And  yet  there  are  men  known  to  many  of  you,  belonging 
to  different  classes,  and  holding  different  positions  in  life  from  that  occu- 
pied by  me,  that  doubtless  would  treat  these  questions  in  a  much  more 
able  manner  than  I  shall  be  able  to  do.  I  am  not  a  politician,  and  still 
less  a  partizan  :  therefore,  I  do  not  recognize  this  invitation  as  coming 
from  politicians,  or  from  any  partizans,  and  I  do  not  feel  to-night  that  I 
am  here  to  plead  the  cause  of  any  party,  or  to  speak  in  behalf  of  any 
particular  view  of  the  question  which  shall  come  before  us.  I  am  not 
a  statesman.  I  have  never  enjoyed  any  of  the  public  or  official  positions 
of  the  country,  and  I  am  very  sure  I  have  no  wish  to  enjoy  any  of  these 
positions.  I  stand  before  you  in  the  character  simply  of  an  American 
citizen,  one  that  loves  my  country,  who  loves  to  study  its  history,  and 
with  an  honest  heart,  desires  to  find  out  what  are  the  difficulties  that 
are  now  hanging  over  this  nation.  It  has  been  my  duty  in  one  position 
I  have  occupied,  to  be  a  student  of  history,  and  I  have  had  some  experi- 
ence in  this  matter.  My  duty  has  called  me  to  study  the  history  of  our 


6 

own  country,  and  when  I  take  up  a  question  of  the  kind,  I  shall  discuss 
it  simply  in  a  historical  manner ;  tracing  out  the  causes  that  have  led 
to  the  present  Rebellion,  by  a  review  of  the  history  of  our  country  ;  and 
as  I  have  no  partizan  objects  to  gain,  and  no  party  to  please,  none  to 
commend  and  none  to  condemn,  it  shall  be  my  simple  business,  as  far 
as  I  possibly  can,  and  with  as  little  prejudice  as  possible,  to  review  these 
circumstances,  and  to  bring  out  from  our  history  the  facts  that  bear  di- 
rectly upon  these  results  that  are  now  before  us.  I  must  be  permitted 
further  to  say,  that  if  I  should  bring  out  here  to  night  some  facts  that 
may  strike  you  as  novel,  you  must  still  allow  me  the  honesty  of  simply 
presenting  them  as  facts,  in  my  view.  If  I  should  state  some  things 
contrary  to  your  prejudices,  still  you  must  not  look  upon  me  as  the 
author  of  the  facts,  or  simply  announcing  them,  as  constituting  either 
approval  or  disapproval  of  the  fcicts  themselves.  With  these  prelimi- 
nary observations  I  start  the  question,  How  came  we  in  the  present  war  ? 
What  were  the  causes  operating  in  the  past,  that  have  brought  into  our 
country  this  great  Rebellion  ?  And  I  answer  three :  if  I  should  have 
time  I  would  introduce  a  fourth.  I  think  we  will  have  time  to  discuss 
only  three. 

The  first  is  this :  THE  WANT  OF  HOMOGENEOUSNESS  IN  THE  POPULA- 
TIONS OF  OUR  COUNTRY  :  the  second,  THE  GROWING  POLITICAL  CORRUP- 
TION IN  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  OUR  GOVERNMENT  ;  the  third,  ACTUAL 
COLLISIONS  WITH  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  OUR  COUNTRY,  the  last  of  which 

constitutes  the,  Rebellion  itself. 

I  say  then  the  first  cause  that  led  to  this  Rebellion  is,  a  want  of  unity 
or  homogeneousness  in  the  population  of  the  country  itself.  Now  when 
we  come  to  consider  a  great  question  like  this,  What  has  brought  on 
this  gigantic  war?  of  course  we  cannot  trace  it  to  causes  immediately 
preceding  the  outbreaking  of  the  Rebellion  ;  to  mere  superficial  circum- 
stances of  momentary  operation  among  the  people  ;  but  it  must  be  traced 
back  to  deeper  principles,  lying  in  the  constitution  of  the  country  itself. 
There  are  deeper  causes  than  those  that  float  upon  the  surface ;  and 
among  those  deeper  influences  that  have  led  to  this  Rebellion  is  the  one 
that  I  have  mentioned — we  have  not  been  one  people.  By  it  I  mean  simply 
this — that  while  throughout  our  nation  we  have  many  things  in  common, 
and  there  are  many  national  characteristics  in  which  we  agree,  there  are 
many  things  in  which  we  disagree,  and  have  disagreed  from  the  com- 
mencement of  our  history.  It  requires  but  a  little  study  of  our  history 
and  little  observation  of  our  national  life,  to  find  that  we  have  in  this 
country  at  least  two  people,  and  ha've  had  from  the  origin  of  the  coun- 
try itself;  and  that  the  distinctions  between  these  two  people  have  been 


showing  themselves  in  all  our  past  history,  arid  are  now  exhibited  most 
prominently  in  the  Rebellion  that  is  upon  the  land.  If  for  instance  we 
go  back  to  glance  at  the  origin  of  our  country,;  at  its  settlement  by  our 
fathers,  we  see  that  two  classes  of  people  came  to  this  country,  and 
originally  settled  the  colonies.  We  remember  that  one  class  who 
came  as  our  fathers,  came  driven  out  from  their  homes  under  the  opera- 
tion of  great  religious  and  national  influences,  and  came  to  this  country 
under  these  impulses,  inspired  with  noble  motives,  sighing  after  liberty, 
seeking  for  a  quiet  place  in  which  they  might  worship  God,  entering  into 
covenant  relations  with  the  Most  High  as  they  were  on  the  ocean  voy- 
age, and  committing  themselves  and  all  their  descendants  to  a  perpetua- 
tion of  this  covenant  in  all  coming  time.  We  know  also  in  another  part 
of  our  country,  many  of  the  colonies  were  settled  on  the  mere  principle 
of  wild  adventure,  of  large  and  unscrupulous  speculation,  of  extravagant 
anticipations  of  wealth,  a  heroic  rushing  out  to  find  vast  territories  and 
to  accumulate  vast  treasures.  Permit  me  here  to  make  this  preliminary 
remark  ;  when  I  say  we  have  two  people  in  this  country,  I  mean  we  have 
one  people  in  the  North  and  one  people  in  the  South,  I  mean  the  divid- 
ing line  that  separates  these  two  classes  is  the  line  sometimes  called 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  and  I  wish  the  remarks  I  have  made  to  apply 
in  this  respect.  I  would  qualify  it  simply  with  regard  to  Virginia,  Dela- 
ware and  Maryland,  lying  upon  the  south  side  of  this  line.  With  regard 
to  these  states  we  have  some  exceptions  in  their  settlement  and  historical 
development ;  and  as  we  look  at  the  history  of  these  states,  at  their 
sympathy  and  co-operation  in  the  battle  of  the  Revolution,  and  the 
maintenance  of  our  government,  we  can  see  there  was  a  difference  in 
the  origin  and  settlement  and  spirit  of  these  states.  But  passing  far- 
ther south,  the  remarks  I  made  apply  strictly  to  the  Carolirias,  to  Geor- 
gia and  Alabama,  and  still  more  strictly  to  that  large  territory  occupied 
at  the  commencement  of  our  government,  and  at  the  time  of  our  Revo- 
lution, by  an  entirely  different  people  from  us,  I  mean  of  course  Florifla? 
and  the  large  territory  known  originally  under  the  name  of  Louisiana, 
occupied  by  Frenchmen,  by  Spaniards,  and  by  half-breeds,  since  pur- 
chased by  our  government,  and  having  still  large  numbers  of  their  de- 
scendants occupying  these  states.  I  say  then,  in  our  historical  origin, 
in  the  settlement  of  our  country,  we  see  that  the  people  of  the  two  sides 
of  this  line  have  started  out  with  different  principles  arid  moved  under 
different  impulses  5  the  one  sighing  for  a  civilization  higher  than  they 
had  yet  reached  at  home,  panting  for  religious  liberty,  for  a  free  and  en- 
lightened commonwealth  :  the  other  launching  out  simply  with  an  adven- 
turous spirit  to  settle  a  nation  and  found  an  empire,  with  but  little  refer- 


8 

ence  as  to  what  should  be  its  characteristics  or  spirit.     Now  go  a  little 
farther  forward  in  our  history  to.  the  time  of  our  Revolution,  and  you 
will  find  in  this  great  struggle  to  gain  the  liberty  of  our  country,  again 
we  stood  forth  as  two  people,  excepting  to  some  considerable  extent  the 
three  states  that  I  have  mentioned.    When  the  tocsin  of  war  was  sounded 
for  the  great  battle  of  freedom,  the  North  rallied  to  a  man.     New  Eng- 
land poured  out  her  fathers  and  sons  :  Virginia  stood  side  by  side  with 
New  England,  and  Maryland  and  Delaware  did  the  same.     The  Caro- 
linas  hesitated, "South  Carolina  stood  coolly  back,  and  threw  the  weight 
of  her  influence  on  the  side  of  Great  Britain.     When  we  go  back  to 
trace  the  history  of  those  "  times  that  tried  men's  souls"  we  find,  true 
as  history  itself,  that  within  the  borders  of  little  South  Carolina,  there 
were  more  tories  and  traitors  to  the  contest  for  liberty,  than  in  all  the 
other  states  put  together.     Here  they  gathered,  until  the  government, 
oppressed  by  the  schemes  and  plottings  of  these  Carolinians,  sent  down 
that  grand  old  hero,  General  Marion,  who,  by  his  conduct  there,  won 
for  himself  the  title  of  the  "  American  Fox,"  to  hunt  them  out  in  South 
Carolina,  and  destroy  the  influence  and  power  of  those  traitors  who  were 
working  for  the* enemy.  (Applause.)   Does  this  seem  like  a  severe  charge 
against  a  sister  state  ?     Let  us  refer  to  a  fact  or  two  in  the  history  of 
the  times.     In  the  spring  of  1780,  Sir  Henry  Clinton  and  Vice  Admiral 
Arbuthnot,  in  command  of  the  British  naval  forces,  presented  themselves 
in  Charleston  harbor,  and  actually  demanded  the  surrender  of  that  city. 
General  Lincoln  as  boldly  defied  the  challenge  of  these  British  officers? 
and  said  "  if  they  wanted  any  American  soil  it  was  their  duty  to  come 
and  take  it."     Lincoln  was  a  good  name  you  see  in  1780.     (Applause.) 
The  South  Carolinians  have  hated  the  name  ever  since.     (Laughter  and 
applause.)     Immediately  after  this  truly  American  and  patriotic  reply 
had  been  given  by  General  Lincoln,  two  hundred  and  twenty-six  citizens 
of  that  city  (Charleston)  signed  a  letter  written  to  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  a 
most  beggarly  entreatment  that  he  should  reject  the  reply  of  Lincoln  as 
in  no  way  representing  the   spirit  of  South  Carolina,  that  yet  owed  its 
allegiance  to  his  majesty  of  England — the  most  pusillanimous  letter  that 
was  ever  written  in  all  the  history  of  our  Revolution.     At  the  same 
time  they  charged  upon  the  Northern  States  the  guilt  of  the  Revolution 
and  declared  to  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  that  the  inhabitants  of  South  Caro- 
lina, and  including — not  perhaps  unauthorizedly — Georgia,  had  no  sym- 
pathy with  this,  as  they  styled  it,  "  rank  democracy,"  which  the  men  of 
the  North  wished  to   establish ;  on   the  contrary  they  desired  nothing 
better  than  obedience  to  his  majesty,  George  of  England,  and  pledged 
themselves  to  use  all  exertions  in  the  furtherance  of  the  designs  of  Sir 


9 

Henry  Clinton.  Clinton  wrote  immediately  to  the  Secretary  of  State  of 
Great  Britain  this  fact,  and  concluded  his  letter  by  saying,  "  I  may  truly 
say  that  within  the  state  of  South  Carolina  we  have  either  every  man 
upon  our  side,  or  the  few  that  are  against  us  are  prisoners  in  our  hands." 
You  see  then  we  have  but  to  appeal  to  the  history  of  the  past  to  find 
that  at  the  commencement,  these  people  entered  into  no  sympathy  with 
the  Republican  institutions  of  our  country.  Let  me  call  your  attention 
especially  to  the  remark  in  the  letter  of  these  men  denouncing  the  "  rank 
democracy  of  ihe  North."  That  is  it.  From  the  commencement  they 
have  been  in  no  sympathy  with  the  Republican  and  Democratic  institu- 
tions of  our  land.  They  are  men  who  love  monarchy,  who  sigh  for  it, 
and  who  wish  to  be  recognized  in  our  whole  land  as  the  chivalry  of  the 
nation,  ready  not  only  to  throw  oft*  the  yoke  of  the  government  under 
which  they  have  lived,  but  in  a  spirit  similar  to  that  of  the  past,  to  se- 
cure for  themselves  a  monarchy  again. 

Let  us  look  a  little  farther.  When  we  .came  to  enter  the  original 
compact  for  fighting  the  battle  of  freedom,  again  we  find  the  North,  in- 
cluding the  three  Southern  states  I  have  named,  heartily  entering  into 
that  compact,  and  esteeming  even  the  articles  of  confederation  as  a  sa- 
cred and  perpetual  obligation  :  that  for  the  present  they  were  to  minister 
to  the  great  work  of  guiding  the  country  through  the  Revolution,  and 
then  were  to  be  developed  into  a  more  permanent  and  binding  compact 
for  the  nation.  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  refused  at  first  to  enter. 
It  was  not  until  two  years  of  Revolutionary  struggle  had  passed  that 
these  two  states  accepted  the  articles  of  Confederation,  and  they  never 
came  into  the  compact  with  any  other  interpretation,  than  that  it  was  a 
mere  temporary  arrangement  for  fighting  the  battle  of  the  Revolution, 
and  which,  when  the  war  was  over,  was  to  leave  these  states  sovereign  in 
themselves  as  before.  And  when,  in  1788,  the  new  constitution  was 
presented  to  the  new  nation — the  old  articles  of  Confederation  having 
been  found  insufficient — again  we  find  these  two  states  holding  back  most 
strenuously  against  accepting  the  new  constitution,  and  for  the  very  same 
reasons  that  they  have  been  urging  in  our  ears  ever  since,  and  which 
have  culminated  in  the  Rebellion.  What  reasons  ? 

First.  We  are  independent  and  sovereign  states,  and  refuse  to  yield 
our  independence  and  sovereignty  to  a  bond  like  this. 

Second.  We  look  at  the  articles  of  your  constitution)  and  find  in  it 
no  guarantee  (to  use  the  language  of  the  times  that  we  have  grown 
familiar  with),  nothing  to  secure  and  guarantee  to  us  the  peculiar  institu- 
tion that  characterizes  the  South. 

Not  until  that  Constitution  was  so  modified  as  to  allow  them  tacitly 


10 

to  interpret  it  as  a  temporary  compact,  and  to  introduce  a  guarantee 
both  for  slavery  and  the  slave  trader,  did  this  proud  little  Miss  Carolina 
of  the  South  consent  to  associate  with  her  sister  states  in  this  Union. 
Now  then  a  step  farther. 

What  man  who  has  travelled  in  our  country  and  crossBcl  the  line  that 
divides  the  North  and  South,  has  not  felt  that  in  passing  from  the  North 
into  that  South,  he  has  entered  a  new  atmosphere :  he  gets  among  a 
new  people.  The  form  of  life,  the  customs  of  society,  the  institutions 
of  the  people,  the  spirit,  the  whole  tone  of  civilization  of  the  Southern 
country,  strikes  him  at  once  as  different  from  that  in  which  he  lived  in 
the  North.  The  Southern  gentleman  is  different  from  the  Northern 
gentleman.  The  Northern  gentleman  is  a  man  of  industry,  a  man  who 
honors  labor,  that  is  not  ashamed  to  toil  for  his  own  good  and  for  the 
good  of  his  fellows,  and  he  may  come  from  his  workshop,  from  behind 
his  counter,  out  of  his  office,  away  from  his  business,  whatever  it  may 
be,  and  feel  that  he  is  one  of  "  nature's  noblemen,"  clothed  in  a  different 
garb  of  cjvilized  and  social  life.  He  feels  he  is  a  man  because  he  is  a 
laborer,  a  laborer  for  God — a  laborer  for  his  fellow  man. 

The  Southern  gentleman  is  a  man  who  is  dressed  in  broadcloth,  with 
an  exceedingly  large  watch-chain  dangling  in  front,  a  considerable  amount 
of  hirsuteness  in  his  face,  and  an  immeasurable  amount  of  self-conceit 
and  bold  defiance  in  his  demeanor.  Go  to  any  of  our  watering  places, 
and  without  a  microscope  or  telescope  you  can  point  out  without  difficulty 
who  is  the  Northern  and  who  is  the  Southern  gentleman.  You  can  see 
one  staid,  upright,  thoughtful,  honest,  honorable,  and  the  other  gene- 
rally— of  course  I  admit  many  honorable  exceptions — a  swaggerer,  a 
boaster,  a  smoker,  a  chewer,  and  a  man  who  puts  himself  outside  of  a 
glass  of  brandy  as  quickly  as  any  gustatory  experiment  you  ever  saw. 
(Laughter.) 

In  the  North  again,  progress  is  the  spirit  of  our  national  life,  and  as 
a  foundation  for  a  free  Republican  commonwealth,  we  have  struggled  to 
elevate  the  masses.  We  have  built  the  free  church ;  we  have  established 
the  free  pulpit ;  we  have  instituted  the  free  school ;  we  have  insisted 
upon  the  free  press  ;  and  we  have  been  proud  when  we  have  been  able 
to  establish  institutions  that  would  elevate  the  humble  and  poor,  and  lift 
them  to  higher  levels  of  life.  Now  pass  this  line  and  all  is  changed. 
You  must  not  have  a  free  pulpit ;  why  ?  The  preacher  might  say  some- 
thing about  something.  (Laughter.)  You  must  not  have  a  free  press  - 
why  ?  That  free  press  might  disturb  somebody.  You  must  not  have 
free  schools  ;  why  1  The  free  schools  might  reach  this  great  multitude 
of  poor  white  men,  and  by  giving  them  enlightenment  and  instruction, 
they  might  see  the  gag  that  we  have  been  keeping  on  their  mouths  in 


11 

the  past  years.  In  fact  you  must  have  nothing  free  but  we,  the  aris- 
tocracy of  the  South,  the  chivalry  of  the  nation.  You  must  not  elevate 
the  poor  man  to  a' higher  scale  of  good.  The  South  loves  to  cast  its  chains 
around  the  poor,  and  enthrall  both  black  and  white  men,  building  up  on 
this  lower  stratum  of  society,  an  aristocracy  of  self-styled  chivalry, 
having  for  its  motto  the  degradation  and  bondage  of  the  black  man. 

"  I  know  you  would  not  have  talked  so  plainly  three  or  four  years 
ago,"  says  some  one.  If  they  had  behaved  themselves  and  made  the 
best  of  the  circumstances  of  the  nation,  we  would  not  have  spoken  so 
plainly  yet  of  what  all  knew  in  the  past  to  be  facts.  You  knew  them, 
and  I  knew  them  for  ten  or  fifteen  years,  and  everybody  knew  them,  but 
we  wanted  the  house  to  be  quiet. 

Let  me  show  you  a  specimen  of  this.  About  five  years  ago  I  stepped 
into  a  store  in  one  of  our  Western  states.  It  was  just  after  an  election 
that  had  gone  Republican  (as  a  ^ood  many  things  are  going  now-a-days), 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  A  gentleman  from  Kentucky,  who  had  been 
dealing  largely  at  that  house,  came  into  the  store  and  spoke  to  the  pro- 
prietor— came  in  as  Southern  gentlemen  generally  do,  quite  pompously 
in  style.  Said  he,  "  Mr.  Smith,  (that  was  the  name  actually)  (laughter) 
I  wish  to  make  a  purchase  to-day,  but  before  doing  it  I  wish  to  ask  a 
question  with  regard  to  this  house ;  I  wish  to  know  how  many  of  this 
house  voted  on  the  Republican  side  at  this  recent  election  T'  Well,  Mr. 

Smith  thought  that  was  coming  to  the  point,  and  he  replied,  "  Mr. . 

I  would  like  to  inform  you  sir,  that  it  is  none  of  your  business  how 
many  men  in  my  house  voted  on  the  Republican  side  of  this  question." 
(Applause.)  "  But,"  said  the  Southern  gentleman,  "  Do  you  know,  sir, 
who  I  am  ?"  "  Of  course  I  do,"  said  Smith.  "  I  am  a  gentleman  from 
the  South,  who  has  dealt  largely  with  you  in  the  past,  but  am  deter- 
mined to  deal  no  more  with  you,  until  this  question  is  answered  :  all  we 
Southern  gentlemen  resolved  to  deal  with  no  house  that  patronizes  that 
side  of  the  question."  "Well,  sir,"  said  Mr.  Smith,  "I  think  the  time 
has  just  about  come  when  we  Northern  gentlemen  ought  to  tell  you 
Southern  gentlemen,  exactly  what  we  Northern  gentlemen  think  of  you, 
and  have  been  thinking  of  you  in  all  the  past.  We  are  men  of  trade, 
that  buy  and  sell  to  get  gain  :  we  have  bought  and  sold  to  you  to  get 
gain,  and  so  long  as  you  dealt  simply  upon  principles  of  business,  we 
could  deal  with  you ;  but  now,  sir,  the  time  has  come  when  the  film  is 
torn  away,  and  we  wish  you  distinctly  to  understand,  that  we  Northern 
gentlemen  know  you  Southern  gentlemen,  and  hereafter  neither  you  nor 
any  other  of  the  South,  can  have  goods  from  this  house  without  paying 
down  the  cash."  (Applause.)  I  saw  that,  and  simply  mention  it  as  a 


12 

fact,  to  show  what  we  all  knew ;  that  in  the  past  there  was  trouble  in 
the  family,  there  were  some  bad  children  in  the  house ;  but  in  order  to 
keep  peace  we  said  nothing.  Now  the  war  has  come  and  the  South  and 
North  acknowledge  the  fact,  and  acknowledge  it  so  as  to  prove  to  the 
world  that  one  of  the  most  powerful  influences  leading  to  the  present 
Rebellion  and  disruption,  has  been  that  want  of  harmony,  that  absence 
of  homogeneousness  in  these  two  sections  of  the  country.  Now  since 
the  war  has  broken  out,  Southern  papers  express  their  real  sentiments. 

The  Richmond  Inquirer,  some  few  months  after  the  rebellion  com- 
menced said,  "  We  never  were  in  sympathy  with  the  Northern  Democracy." 
It  meant  the  Democracy  in  its  good  sense,  for  it  has  a  bad  sense.  (Ap- 
plause.) "We  have  never  loved  Republican  institutions,  we  have  never 
believed  in  the  freedom  of  the  people  ;  on  the  contrary,  we  have  believed 
in  government,  in  law,  in  rule,  in  power,  in  subjugation,  and  we  wish 
the  world  to  understand  that  hereafter  the  Southern  states  lift  up  the 
cry,  instead  of  liberty,  equality  and  fraternity — slavery,  government 
and  submission."  That  is  the  spirit  that  has  been  in  the  South  all 
along.  One  part  of  this  country  has  had  for  its  beau  ideal,  liberty,  and 
has  taken  up  in  its  true  and  noble  sense,  the  motto  of  "  equality,  liberty 
and  fraternity."  Down  in  the  depths  of  the  heart  of  the  other  part? 
they  have  not  dared  in  the  past  to  use  the  cry,  yet  now,  when  they 
think  they  are  free,  they  do  use  the  cry  of  "  Slavery,  subordination, 
and  bondage." 

We  all  recollect  that  remarkable  speech  of  Alexander  Stephens,  after 
he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  this  terrible  Rebellion. 
<<  In  all  the  past,"  said  Stephens,  "  we  meant  to  lay  as  the  foundation  of 
our  social  life  human  bondage,  and  we  must  come  out  and  boldly  say  that 
the  corner-stone  on  which  the  Confederate  States  should  be  built,  is 
that  of  human  slavery."  And  yet  I  heard  a  gentleman  say,  not  very 
long  ago,  that  in  Mr.  Stephens'  own  house,  in  the  year  1860,  he  heard 
Mr.  Stephens  say,  that  "  whenever  disunion  takes  place  in  this  nation, 
our  negroes  will  not  be  worth  the  salt  we  feed  them." 

What  did  this  man  mean  ?  He  was  a  noble  and  true  man.  He  saw 
through  it  all,  understood  it  all ;  but  when  the  fatal  die  was  cast,  he 
simply  chose  to  take  his  own  share  with  the  rest,  and  launched  out  in 
the  full  significance  of  rebellion,  which  he  distinctly  understood  to  mean 
subjugation,  submission,  and  the  thraldom  of  the  lower  classes. 

i  think,  then,  we  have  seen  sufficient  to  show  that  I  am  not  mistaken 
when  I  say  that,  lying  at  the  foundation  of  the  war,  is  the  spirit,  the 
customs,  the  habits,  the  wants,  the  institutions,  and  in  a  word  the  civili- 
zation of  the  two  different  sections  of  our  country.  This  difference  has 


13 

had  a  large  share  in  causing,  and  is  the  very  foundation  of.  the  Rebel- 
lion in  which  we  are  now  engaged. 

Some  of  you  might  ask  the  question — if  what  you  say  is  true,  had  we 
better  not  separate?  I  would  simply  answer  no,  never  !  (Applause.) 
and  next  Tuesday  night  will  give  the  reasons  for  my  no.  (Applause.) 

Let  us  pass  to  the  second.  My  second  proposition,  which  I  have 
stated  as  a  cause  that  has  led  to  this  Rebellion,  has  been,  the  growing 
political  corruption  that  has.  entered  into  the  government  of  our  nation. 
Our  country,  our  government,  national  and  state  is  corrupt,  profoundly 
corrupt.  In  its  forms,  in  its  constitutions,  in  the  laws,  I  believe  it 
would.be  the  best  government  that  God  ever  gave  to  a  people  dwelling 
on  this  earth.  In  its  administration,  T  believe  for  the  past  thirty  years, 
it  has  been  one  of  the  most  corrupt  governments  that  the  eye  of  God 
could  look  down  upon  on  the  face  of  this  globe. 

We  had  like  all  other  nations^  in  our  infancy  our  Golden  Age,  our 
time  of  Republican  purity,  the  days  of  our  fathers  when  men  pursued 
honest  legislation,  when  statesmen  and  members  of  our  legislative 
bodies  felt  that  their  business  was  to  minister  to  the  true  welfare,  to 
the  real  good  of  the  nation;  and  we  look  back  with  just  pride  to  these 
golden  days  of  our  nation's  history.  But  I  tell  you,  ladies  and  gentle- 
men, and  you  know  it  just  as  well  as  I  do,  that  these  things — simple, 
plain  and  pure,  "  were  forty  years  ago  !"  I  am  going  to  make  a  state- 
ment that  perhaps  some  will  say  is  downright  heresy :  but  it  is  a  fact 
and  I  cannot  help  it.  If  I  was  to  point  to  the  time,  when  this  political 
corruption  first  entered  the  country  and  began  to  breathe  out  its  pesti- 
lence and  death  upon  the  nation,  I  would  lay  my  finger  on  the  year  1829  ; 
and  though  I  dislike  very  much  to  say  it,  that  is  the  year  in  which 
General  Jackson  became  President  of  the  United  States.  Now  I  know 
some  will  say  that  is  heresy.  "  General  Jackson  ?  why  he  is  the  hero 
of  the  nation."  So  he  is.  "  He  is  the  idol  of  multitudes  of  the  peo- 
ple." So  he  is ;  but  I  take  it,  we  are  here  to  study  history.  All 
honor  to  General  Jackson  for  his  glorious  battle  of  New  Orleans !  All 
honor  to  this  true  patriot  for  defeating  the  base  schemes  of  nullification 
in  1832!  But  we  must  stultify  our  senses  and  ignore  the  facts  of  our 
history  before  we  can  refuse  to  write  alongside  of  this  honor,  the  his- 
torical fact  that  the  birthtiine  of  the  political  corruption  of  our  nation 
was  in  the  administration  of  this  very  General.  Go  back  now  and  look 
at  our  history,  and  up  to-  that  very  time  we  can  measure  the  Golden 
Age  of  our  country.  In  the  administration  of  his  immediate  predecessor, 
John  Quincy  Adams,  we  had  as  pure  an  administration  as  ever  blessed 
this  country,  and  throughout  the  whole  nation,  North  and  South, 


14 

there  was  peace  and  prosperity  and  virtue  and  unity  and  harmony,  that 
reminds  the  reader  of  the  golden  days  when  such  men  as  Washington 
and  Jefferson,  and  the  elder  Adams  themselves  held  the  reins  of  our 
government.  Every  interest  of  the  nation  was  prosperous.  John 
Quincy  Adams  administered  this  government  with  men  of  all  parties. 
He  ignored  no  man  for  his  political  relationship.  He  exercised  no 
power  of  his  position  to  continue  in  office.  He  had  nothing  to  do  with 
that  principle,  c'To  the  victors  belong  the  spoils."  Whenever  he  could 
find  a  good,  true  and  honest  man,  whether  he  had  been  upon  his  side 
in  the  election  or  against  him,  he  placed  him  in  his  cabinet  or  in  the 
highest  positions.  The  legislation  of  those  four  years  was  directed 
honestly  and  fairly  to  the  welfare  of  the  nation.  I  simply  refer  you  to 
the  history  of  the  country  to  prove,  that  one  of  the  proudest  periods  and 
noblest  administrations,  is  that  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  immediately 
preceding  the  year  1829.  (Applause.)  Now  things  are  changed,  sadly 
changed;  and  we  need  not  go  back  to  trace  up  the  gradual  unfolding  of 
this  change.  The  change,  my  hearers,  was  like  a  clap  of  thunder  out  of 
a  clear  sky.  The  change  came  instantly  upon  a  people  in  the  highest 
state  of  prosperity  before  1829.  Before  1833  came  upon  the  nation 
danger,  corruption,  want,  threatening  poverty,  anarchy,  derangement  of 
business  and  everything  else  deteriorated.  What  are  the  facts  of  the 
case  ?  One  of  the  first  acts  of  this  earnest  old  General  was  a  political 
proscription,  putting  out  of  every  office  every  man  on  the  opposite  side ; 
the  next  was  the  establishment  of  a  pensioned  press,  extending  an  in- 
fluence that  could  not  be  seen  or  touched,  and  yet  that  was  mighty  and 
powerful  throughout  the  whole  nation.  I  say  we  can  find  in  history 
that  just  at  that  time  were  born  into  the  nation's  life  three  of  the  most 
damning  principles  that  ever  entered  into  the  administration  of  any 
government.  I  mean  first  that  suicidal  principle — "  To  the  victors 
belong  the  spoils"  I  mean  secondly,  that  abominable  principle,  that 
the  administration  in  power  must  use  the  power  of  the  government  to 
secure  its  continuance  in  office.  I  mean  thirdly,  that  equally  ruinous 
one,  that  the  legislation  of  our  land  must  be  directed  toward  the  same 
end  of  perpetuating  the  power  and  the  influence  of  the  party.  Now  I 
say  just  then  the  history  of  our  country  shows,  were  born  those  very 
destructive  principles  into  our  national  life. 

Look  at  the  first  one.  Could  it  have  been  born  anywhere  else  than 
in  the  depths  of  corruption — "  to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils !"  The 
very  sentence  smells  of  blood,  and  looks  like  spoliation.  Victors  in  a 
Republican  government !  "  To  victors,"  in  a  government  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  free  institutions,  "belong  the  spoils  !"  "We  have  won 


15 

the  battle,  we  have  routed  the  foe,  we  have  resorted  to  all  means  to 
gain  the  day,  the  spoils  are  ours  /"  What  nation  could  live  under  a 
motto  like  this  ?  No  nation  at  all,  and  much  less  a  Republican  nation. 
Then  it  was  born,  and  from  that  time  to  this  it  has  been  practiced,  not 
by  one  party,  but  it  has  been  accepted  by  all  the  parties  of  the  land, 
and  has  become  an  unblushing,  boldly  announced  cry  of  the  politician, 
"  To  the  victors  belong  the  spoils."  Men  say  it  and  do  not  blush  !  I 
wonder  the  Devil  could  say  it  and  not  blush  !  In  a  free  country  like 
this,  in  the  midst  of  Republican  institutions,  "  We  have  won  the  politi- 
cal battle,  and  the  spoils  are  ours!"  "  Out  with  every  man  opposed  to 
our  party,  cast  him  out  of  office,"  "  direct  all  legislation  to  the  continu- 
ance of  ourselves  in  power  j"  and  why?  "  We  are  victors  and  the  spoils 
are  ours!" 

I  have  said  this  has  entered  into  all  the  parties.  When  we  had  won 
the  victory  some  two  or  three  years  ago,  there  was  a  little,  insignificant 
position  that  a  good  Democrat  had  been  occupying,  I  don't  know  how 
many  years.  I  was  desirous  they  should  keep  in  place  a  good  man,  an 
honest  man — worthy  in  every  sense — well  versed  in  the  functions  of  the 
office.  The  whole  community  nearly  wished  him  to  be  retained,  yet 
because  of  this  ruthless  proscription,  that  has  become  the  motto  of  the 
day,  this  gentleman  was  put  aside,  out  of  office.  I  thought  I  would  call 
on  a  Senator  from  New  Jersey  in  relation  to  this  matter.  I  went  and 
spoke  to  this  man,  telling  him  I  thought  it  would  be  exceedingly  pleas- 
ing to  the  Republicans  as  well  as  the  Democrats,  if  this  gentleman  were 
allowed  to  continue  in  office.  The  Senator  heard  me  quietly  for  a  little 
while,  listened  to  what  I  said,  stroked  his  whiskers,  and  then  without 
offering  an  argument  said,  "  Well,  Mr.  Wiley,  the  *  spoils  belong  to  the 
victors.'"  (Laughter.) 

What  injury  has  this  done  in  the  nation  !  It  has  distributed  corrup- 
tion and  pollution  into  all  the  political  parties  of  the  land  ;  it  has 
elevated  men  into  office,  the  most  unworthy  to  hold  those  positions. 
It  has  become  definitely  understood  that  the  game  played  for  in  nearly 
every  political  campaign  is  but  a  game  for  spoils — that  when  victorious 
they  may  gather  in  the  fruits.  It  is  a  contest  for  gold  and  power.  It 
has  excited  strong  political  partizanship  in  our  land.  It  has  intensified 
the  contests  of  these  parties.  I  wish  I  could  believe,  and  you  wish  you 
could  believe,  when  we  carry  on  a  stern  and  intense  political  campaign 
for  the  election  of  President  or  Governor,  that  both  parties  were  zealous 
to  get  the  best  man  in  the  position,  the  best  officers  in  power,  the  best 
laws  passed.  I  wish  in  my  heart  I  could  believe  it,  and  you  wish  you 
could  believe  it.  We  know  it  is  not  this  patriotic  desire  to  place  the 


16 

best  men  in  positions,  and  to  secure  to  the  government  the  best  legis- 
lation ;  but  we  know  perfectly  well,  that  the  scheming,  the  plotting, 
the  zealous  efforts  on  both  sides  are,  to  get  the  positions  for  the  rewards 
that  are  returned. 

Passing  to  those  other  two  principles,  they  are  equally  bad  and  de- 
structive in  their  influence  on  the  nation,  Look  at  the  legislative 
assemblies,  look  not  far  away  from  Trenton,  when  any  subject  comes 
before  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  or  the  legislature  of  a  single 
state,  and  see  with  what  unerring  accuracy  you  can  tell  how  men  are 
going  to  vote.  You  know  the  Republicans  will  vote  on  that  side  ;  and 
the  Democrats  will  arrange  themselves  on  that  side.  The  vote  is 
counted,  and  we  are  as  familiar  with  it  as  with  our  a  b  c  ;  it  is  a  party 
vote.  It  is  not  a  broad,  patriotic,  comprehensive  view — is  this  measure 
for  the  welfare  of  the  state  or  nation  ?  It  is  not  a  broad  .patriotic  and 
comprehensive  view — is  this  a  good  law  or  is  it  an  injurious  one  ?  But 
it  is  this — will  it  satisfy  our  constituents  ?  How  will  this  meet  the 
wants  of  the  party  ?  How  must  I  vote  as  Republican  or  Democrat  ? 
And  when  the  vote  is  taken  you  can  tell  precisely  how  the  two  parties 
stand.  What  has  been  the  consequence  ?  Some  of  the  basest  laws 
ever  passed  by  an  enlightened  nation,  have  been  passed  by  our  national 
and  state  governments  j  and  some  of  the  best  laws,  that  would  have  ad- 
ministered to  the  welfare  of  the  nation,  have  been  cast  aside,  simply  on 
the  principle  of  a  party  vote  like  this.  I  say  I  wondered  long  ago  that 
the  God  of  heaven  looking  down  on  this  nation,  so  dead  to  patriotism, 
so  devoted  to  selfish  gain  and  partizan  politics,  so  reckless  of  the  true 
interests  of  the  nation  and  of  the  government,  had  not  let  his  thunder- 
bolt fall  upon  us  long  ago. 

Some  ask,  «  what  has  that  to  do  with  the  Rebellion  now  upon  us  V 
It  has  much  to  do  with  it  every  way.  What  is  the  Rebellion  that  is 
upon  us  ?  It  is  a  partizan  strife.  It  is  one  -party  that  has  been  taught 
through  all  these  thirty  years,  this  lesson,  that  if  you  gain  the  victory 
you  secure  the  spoils.  It  has  been  taught  by  this  political  corruption 
to  struggle  for  the  gain  of  mere  official  position,  to  hold  the  reins  and 
rule  and  direct  the  affairs  of  the  nation.  It  has  disseminated  political 
ambition.  It  has  given  rise  to  scheming  and  plotting  in  Congress  and 
out  of  Congress.  It  has  awakened  the  most  intense  party  strife  in  the 
history  of  the  past,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  that  political  aspiration 
for  high  positions  in  our  land,  that  has  taken  full  possession  of  one  part 
of  our  country,  "  Wdll  rule,  or  ruin."  Who  will  rule  or  ruin  ?  Men 
that  love  gold.  Who  will  rule  or  ruin  ?  Men  that  understand  dis- 
tinctly that  if  they  gain  the  victory  they  are  entitled  to  the  spoils. 


17 

Who  will  rule  or  ruin  ?  Men  who  see  in  the  onward  progress  of  virtue 
and  righteousness  and  truth,  that  these  abominable  schemes  are  to  be 
checked,  the  government  taken  out  of  their  hands,  and  they  are  to  be 
laid  on  the  shelf.  As  soon  as  we  reached  a  point  in  this  political  cor- 
ruption when  the  integrity  of  the  people  said,  «  this  thing  shall  go  no 
farther ;"  as  soon  as  we  reached  the  point  when  we  resolved  to  take 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  South  the  power  of  the  nation,  what  was  the 
result1?  Why  they  said,  if  we  can't  rule  we'll  ruin.  What  does  it 
mean  ?  It  means  the  time  has  come  when  the  South  cannot  rule  the 
North,  when  it  cannot  have  command  over  the  treasury  and  government 
of  the  nation.  It  means  the  day  has  come  when  the  people  will  elect 
honest  men  to  fill  the  positions  of  the  country,  and  will  defeat  those 
abominable  principles  that  were  originated  thirty  years  ago.  (Applause.) 
When  these  dishonest  politicians  south  or  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line  found  this  time  come  upon  us,  they  were  ready  to  ruin  rather  than 
givejip  the  spoils.  We  have  a  few  north  of  this  line  as  well  as  south. 
(Applause.)  They  don't  like  to  see  the  spoils  go  out  of  their  hands. 
They  don't  like  the  day  to  reach  them  when  they  shall  no  longer  be 
able  to  dip  their  hands  into  Uncle  Sam's  pocket.  (Laughter.)  They 
don't  like  to  know  that  a  new  class  of  men  are  to  come,  and  try  their 
hand  in  working  this  nation. 

I  say  then  in  every  way,  in  many  respects  it  is  this  political  corrup- 
tion that  has  led  to  this  disruption  in  our  land.  It  is  this  that  has 
awakened  the  spirit  in  the  south — after  the  day  of  the  dissolution  of 
these  men  had  come — to  "  let  loose  the  dogs  of  war,  and  cry  havoc" 

Let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  third.  I  have  stated  it  to  be 
c'  actual  collisions  occurring  in  the  administration  of  our  government." 
It  was  to  be  expected  that  in  the  administration  of  the  government  of  a 
great  country  like  this,  with  such  separate  and  varying  interests,  with 
so  many  differing  localities  under  that  government,  that  we  should  have 
collisions  and  should  have  difficulties ;  but  it  was  equally  to  be  ex- 
pected that  we  would  always  have  wise  and  honest  men  who  would  be 
ready  to  meet  these  conflicts  and  guide  the  ship  of  state  safely  through 
them.  Thanks  to  God's  providence !  we  had  these  men — sterling, 
honest,  patriotic  men  for  many  years  in  the  history  of  our  country,  men 
whose  names  are  indeed  venerable  and  hallowed  in  the  history  of  the 
nation — first  among  them  stands  the  great  Father  of  his  country  himself. 
(Applause.)  Then  such  men  as  Jefferson,  and  Madison,  and  Monroe, 
and  Clay,  and  Webster,  men  who  have  gone  down  to  sleep  in  honorable 
graves,  whose  names  our  children  will  mention  to  the  last  generation 
upon  our  land.  (Applause.)  These  men  have  passed  away.  It  has 
2 


18 

been  many  a  year  since  sterling  and  honest,  upright  and  noble  patriots 
like  these  stood  in  our  congressional  halls,  and  were  ministers  in  our 
legislative  assemblies.  Heaven  grant  the  day  may  soon  come  when,  out 
of  the  multitudes  of  capable  and  honest  and  wise  men  throughout  our 
once  happy  land,  we  shall  select  men  not  for  their  mere  party  services, 
not  for  their  mere  availability  in  an  election,  not  for  their  mere  purse 
that  commands  many  votes,  not  for  their  mere  political  and  party  rela- 
tionships, but  for  their  might  and  power  as  patriots  and  as  statesmen. 
I  say,  then,  Providence  having  favored  us  with  men  like  these  during 
many  years  of  our  history,  we  guarded  off  these  necessary  collisions  that 
came  in  the  course  of  our  government ;  but  at  last  one  came  for  which 
we  had  no  wise  hand  at  the  helm,  and  the  ship  ran  upon  the  rocks. 
(Applause.) 

Let  us  look  at  a  few  of  these  collisions.  The  first  was  in  1819-20, 
it  was  the  one  usually  called  "  the  great  Missouri  contest,"  arising  out 
of  the  admission  of  Missouri  to  membership  in  the  Union  as  a  state.-  At 
the 'session  of  1818—19,  the  house  of  Congress  passed  a  bill  admitting 
Missouri  into  the  Union,  on  the  condition  that  all  children  born  in  Mis- 
souri after  the  passage  of  that  act  should  be  free  when  they  reached  the 
age  of  twenty-five,  and  no  other  means  should  be  made  use  of  for  the* 
introduction  of  slavery  in  the  State  of  Missouri.  The  bill  thus  passed 
in  the  House,  went  up  to  the  Senate,  and  was  returned  without  the  con- 
dition. The  House  refused  to  concede  this  point,  and  of  course  the  bill 
providing  for  the  admission  of  Missouri  into  the  Union  was  laid  on  the 
table. 

Congress  adjourned,  and  the  excitement  that  had  already  been  awak- 
ened by  the  discussions  in  Congress,  went  out  among  the  people.  The 
first  great  contest,  now  more  than  forty  years  ago,  arose  on  this  question, 
the  same  that  agitates  us  to-day.  Flaming  orators  went  through  the 
North  and  the  South  discussing  the  slavery  question,  and  the  admission 
of  Missouri  into  the  Union.  Conventions  were  called  and  agitated  by 
this  question.  Legislative  bodies  acted  upon  it — the  South  taking  the 
ground  that  Missouri  should  be  admitted  with  slavery,  and  most  of  the 
northern  conventions  opposing  the  admission  of  a  new  state  burdened 
with  this  institution.  Thus  matters  stood  in  1819  and  18'20.  It  came 
up  again  before  Congress.  The  House  still  stood  upon  its  previous  bill, 
that  Missouri  should  be  admitted  on  the  condition  that  the  children  of 
her  slaves  should  be  liberated  as  they  reached  the  age  of  twenty-five. 

The  South  took  its  ground  broadly  on  what  it  termed  the  Constitution 

that  we,  the  government,  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  status  of  slavery 
in  Missouri,  that  it  belonged  to  Missouri  alone  to  settle  that  question. 


19 

The  North  took  the  ground,  that  as  Missouri  was  not  a  state,  it  was  in 
the  power  of  Congress  to  say  under  what  conditions  she  should  be 
admitted  into  the  Union.  Then'came  the  battle,  the  great  contest  that 
shook  the  nation  to  its  center  at  that  time,  and  there  was  raised  even 
then — forty  years  ago — -perhaps  the  first  cry  of  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  and  that  cry  came  up  from  the  same  South  that  has  been  hurl- 
ing it  out  on  every  critical  occasion  that  has  arisen  in  otlr  country.  There 
stood  up  one  of  the  great  men  I  have  mentioned.  He  looked  over  this 
contest,  and,  as  he  said,  "trembled  at  the  danger  that  threatened."  He 
threw  himself  between  the  parties  and  endeavored  to  pacify  the  elements 
and  restore  peace.  That  man  was  the  illustrious  Henry  Clay  !  (Ap- 
plause.) He  came  forward  and  stood  in  the  breach  between  the  two 
angered  parties.  He  proclaimed  himself  as  standing  on  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  South.  He  stated  it  as  his  view  that  it  belonged  to  Missouri 
alone  to  settle  the  question  of  slavery  for  herself,  but  then  distinctly 
stated  this,  that  so  decided  was  his  own  antagonism  to  this  terrible  insti- 
tution, that  if  he  were  a  citizen  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  he  would  rather 
wish  her  to  remain  out  of  the  Union,  than  come  into  it  with  this  stigma 
and  blot  upon  her.  He  went  farther,  and  predicted,  that  while  he  thought 
in  the  abstract  this  was  the  right  of  Missouri,  yet  he  lifted  his  warning 
voice  and  said  to  the  South, "  If  in  the  coming  time  you  insist  upon  this 
abstract  right,  and  claim  that  the  approaching  territories  that  arc  coming 
into  this  Union  shall  have  the  power  to  enter  into  it  clothed  with  this 
badge  of  infamy,  you  will  inevitably  bring  a  disruption  of  this  Union.'' 
Then  came  the  grand  compromise  of  1820.  Missouri^  was  admitted, 
admitted  without  the  condition,  the  House  yielding  the  point,  on  condi- 
tion that  the  great  northwestern  territories  should  forever  be  dedicated 
to  freedom.  That  contest  was  safely  over. 

We  passed  on  till  1832.  Then  we  had  another — the  great  Nullifica- 
tion Contest — when  this  little  lady  from  the  South  said  she  would  not 
submit  to  the  laws  passed  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  with 
regard  to  the  Protective  Tariff;  and  when  that  stern  old  Unionist  Gen- 
eral Jackson,  heard  of  it,  he  said  if  she  did  not  submit,  every  foot  of  the 
soil  of  South  Carolina  should  be  covered  with  her  own  blood.  That  was 
about  the  right  way  to  talk.  (Applause.)  It  is  a  strange  thing  when 
we  go  back  to  study  the  history  of  that  contest,  to  find  that  the  first 
bill  for  the  Protective  Tariff  was  introduced  by  a  Mr.  Lowndes  from 
South  Carolina,  and  that  the  bill  was  advocated  most  strenuously  by 
Hon.  John  C.  Calhoun,  the  father,  perhaps  the  true  father,  of  Secession 
in  our  day,  and  a  very  little  while  after  the  leader  in  the  great  Nullifi- 
cation Contest. 


20 

The  Protective  Tariff  became  necessary  by  the  war  of  18^2.  ID  181  & 
Mr.  Lo wndes  of  South  Carolina  brought  forward  his  bill,  and,  after 
various  successive  modifications,  we  had  a  well-established  Protective 
System  about  1S24.  I  might  remark,  it  is  just  as  strange  when  Mr, 
Lowndes  brought  forward  this  bill  that  the  Republicans  of  New  Eng- 
land and  Massachusetts  went  strongly  against  it.  Whyl  Then  New 
England  was  not  quite  so  large  a  manufacturing  place  as  now,  but  her 
great  interest  lay  in  the  carrying  traderin  the  boating  and  shipping  busi- 
ness, and  this  tariff  touched  that  a  Little,  and  therefore  New  England 
stood  against  it.  In  the-  course  of  fifteen  years  things  turned  round. 
The  staple  of  the  Smith,,  she  saw,  was  cotton.  She  saw  she  could  afford 
to  sacrifice  wheat,  corn,  everything  else,,  to  raise  this  .staple  and  export 
it  abroad.  She  saw  that  this  manufacturing  skill  in.  the  North,  that  has 
become  so  mighty,,  was  then  slowly  developing  itself  to  meet  the  wants 
of  the  country.  She  discovered  this  fact,  that  after  she  had  sent  her 
cotton  abroad,  and  England  manufactured  it  iato  goods-  and  it  was- 
brought  back  to  this  country  again,  she  was  paying  a  tariff  on  her  own- 
product.  She  said,  "  I  wont  do  it,"  and  came  up  to  the  session  of  1832. 
and  said,  "  we  must  have  an  end  of  this  Protective  Tariff  system,  and 
we  will  not  pay  duties  on  eur  own  goods."  New  England  found  then, 
that  her  great  interest  lay  in-  manufactures — that  the  South  conld  raise 
their  cotton  or  other  staples,  but  that  by  her  own  mighty  head  and 
skilful  hand  she  was  compelled  to  make  her  fortunes.  She  stood  up 
against  this.  South  Carolina,  who-  led  off  in  this- contest,,  said  she  would 
not  submit,  and  claimed  the  power  of  every  state  in  th@  Union  to  nullify 
at  its  pleasure  the  laws  passed  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 
General  Jackson  listened,  and  said  it  was  not  the  power  of  ©ne  state  to 
nullify  the  acts  of  Congress.  He  iss-ued  a  proclamation  ordering  South 
Carolina  to  obey  the  laws  of  Congress,  He  ordered  soldiers  into  the 
state.  The  navy  began  to  gather  into  Charleston  harbor.  Yet  the 
proud  little  Miss  stood  up  boldly,  held  a  convention  on  the  19th  Novem- 
ber, 1 832,  in  Columbus,  and  passed  an  ordinance  there  that  the  State 
of  South  Carolina  was  an  independent  and  sovereign  state,  and  that  it 
iras  her  power,  and  she  would  claim  it  and  maintain  it  to  the  last,  to 
nullify  the  acts  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  That  ordinance 
passed  by  the  convention  was  brought  into  the  legislative  body  of  South 
Carolina,  and  they  passetl  it,  and  laid  down  the  test-oath  that  every 
officer  of  South  Carolina,  military  and  civil,  should  pledge  himself  upoii 
oath  to  render  his  first  allegiance  to  South  Carolina,  and  t©  stand  for 
the  independence  of  his  state.  She  threw  out  also  a  broad  hint,  that 
application  would  be  made  to  Great  Britain  for  aid  in  this  contest. 


You  sec  now  she  still  looked  to  England !  In  every  emergency  she  has 
been  sighing  for  these  flesh-pots  of  England.  The  'General  stood  firm ; 
but  both  agreed  finally  to  a  compromise. 

Again  I  nrast  say  something  about  General  Jackson.  He  did  -what 
every  good,  honest  ruler  would  have  done — he  did  what  I  wish  in  my 
heart  James  Buchanan  nad  done.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  But  there 
was  this  difficulty  in  the  case  of  General  Jackson  ;  lie  was  ready  to  yield 
the  whole  ground  to  the  saucy  South,  and  was  In  sympathy  with  the 
movement  of  the  Soutn,  and  wished  the  overthrow  of  the  tariff  principle. 
He  would  have  given  up  the  whole  ground,  had  not  that  same  patriot 
come  forward  again,  Henry  Clay,  and  with  the  wisdom  of  a  statesman 
pacified  the  contest  (applause),  saving  the  Protective  System  and  satis- 
fying the  South  by  laying  aside,  for  the  time  being,  the  tariff  on  all 
those  manufactured  articles  which  came  into  competition  with  the  manu- 
factures of  our  own  country.  That  storm  was  over,  and  we  have  little 
idea  now,  except  as  we  study  the  history  of  those  times,  ho-w  nearly  that 
conflict  came  to  realizing  a  rebellion  in  our  land.  South  Carolina  was 
armed  and  ready  for  the  battle  ;  and  who  for  one  moment  doubts,  if  she 
had  struck  the  blow,  she  would  have  been  followed  by  her  sister  states 
of  the  South.  Timely  wisdom,  honorable  statesmanship,  true  patriotism, 
stepped  forward  and  saved  the  wreck. 

We  had  another  collision.  I  would  date  it  about  1844,  continuing 
until  1850,  or  perhaps  I  might  say,  .continuing  to  the  present  day  j  for 
it  is  the  same  struggle — originating  about  that  time — that  has  thrown 
us  into  this  contest. 

When  we  go  back  to  about  1840,  or  even  back  to  1832,  we  find  the 
South  had  learned  the  fact  that  its  interest  was  in  cotton.  It  discovered 
the  fact  that  cotton  is  a  powerful  exhauster  of  the  soil,  and  must  have 
increasing  territory,  into  which  it  may  move  itself,  that  it  may  continue 
profitable  and  advantageous.  There  lay  just  west  of  this  fertile  South, 
now  nearly  exhausted,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  tracts  of  land  on  the 
continent.  It  was  the  territory  of  Texas.  Into  that  country  Southerners 
began  to  move  by  emigration,  an.d  about  1836  they  had  already  poured 
into  the  minds  of  those  native  Texans  the  idea  of  their  independence, 
and  striking  for  liberty  from  the  government  of  Mexico.  The  Texans 
liked  the  idea,  and  in  1836  proclaimed  their  independence,  the  result  of 
which  was  war.  The  Texans  obtained  help  from  this  country,  princi- 
pally from  the  South,  but  largely  too  from  the  North.  I  had  personal 
friends,  I  remember — you  had  some,  perhaps — to  enter  into  this  contest 
of  the  "  lone  star"  for  her  independence  from  Mexican  rule.  Our  coun- 
try was  hasty  in  Doming  forward  to  acknowledge  the  independence  of 


the  struggling  Texans ;  and  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  during  this 
contest,  when  we'  have  said  so  many  hard  things  against  France  and 
England,  we  do  not  remember  how  soon,  how  offensively  hasty,  we  were 
to  recognize  the  independence  of  that  state  before  Mexico  had  yielded 
the  contest.  In  recollecting  this,  we  might  hesitate  in  some  of  our 
charges  against  these  nations  abroad.  However,  Texas  gained  its  inde- 
pendence, and  the  great  question  came  forward  then,  as  she  stood  out 
alone,  whether  she  should  be  admitted  into  the  Union.  The  North 
strenuously  opposed  its  admission.  You  recollect  who  was  a  prominent 
candidate  for  the  Presidency  then,  Martin  Van  Buren,  and  you  remem- 
ber when  the  time  came  for  selecting  the  candidate  for  the  Presidency, 
Martin  Van  Buren,  who  was^opposed  to  the  admission  of  Texas,  was  set 
aside,  and  James  K.  Polk  chosen,  a  man  so  little  known  that  most  of 
the  people  would  ask,  who  is  James  K.  Polk  ?  Where  did  he  come 
from  ?  But  who  was  pledged  to  the  admission  of  Texas,  and  put  in 
opposition  against  that  noblest  of  patriots,  Henry  Clay.  I  still  remem- 
ber that  contest.  You  recollect  how  the  opposite  party  said  one  thing 
in  Pennsylvania  and  another  in  Virginia.  You  remember  how  they 
cried  "  tariff  and  no  Texas"  when  they  came  into  the  outside  counties 
of  Massachusetts,  and  cried  "  no  tariff  and  Texas"  south  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line.  James  K.  Polk  was  elected  President  of  the  United 
States  against  the  best  known  man,  and  one  of  the  most  honest  patriots 
and  wisest  statesmen  that  our  nation  had  ever  produced.  We  know  the 
people  were  largely  opposed,  in  the  North,  to  the  admission  of  Texas 
into  the  Union.  We  understood,  or  our  statesmen  understood,  that  the 
admission  of  Texas  as  a  state,  already  bound  in  perpetuity  to  slavery, 
would  be  laying  the  foundation  of  such  a  strife  and  contest  in  this 
nation  that  it  would  never  end  until  it  led  to  bloodshed  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Union.  Mr.  Clay  looked  over  the  ground  and  gave  us  a 
prophecy  that  has  been  fulfilled  to  the  letter.  "  I  dread,"  said  this 
statesman,  "the  day  when  Texas  shall  be  admitted  into  this  Union.  It 
admits  a  precedent  that  will  be  pressed  upon  the  nation  until  it  can 
endure  no  more,  then  it  will  refuse ;  then  will  come  the  cry  of  disunion, 
and  beyond  that  I  dare  not  look."  But  Polk  was  elected,  Texas  ad- 
mitted into  the  Union,  and  up  came  the  old  contest  again  with  regard 
to  her  admission  as  a  slave  state.  The  battle  was  fought.  Texas  was 
carried  in,  slaves  and  all.  A  large  territory,  big  enough  for  five  states, 
was  thus  carried  into  the  Union,  and  slavery  established  forever  there,  until 
we  shall  wipe  it  out.  (Applause.)  Then  came  a  war  costing  $200,000,000. 
But  we  could  well  pay  for  that,  for  we  got  two  big  slices  out  of  the 
Mexican  territories,  and  gained  the  vast  gold  mines  of  California,  and 


23 

I 

that  rich  silver  district  of  New  Mexico.  Again  came  the  encounter. 
What  about  ?  These  states.  The  South  said,  "  Here  is  territory  free 
that  must  be  slave."  "  No,"  said  the  North,  and  again  came  the  con- 
test, and  battle  that  was  finally  ended  by  excluding  forever  out  of 
California,  and  nearly  excluding  out  of  Mexico,  this  introduction  of  the 
badge  of  infamy,  and  throwing  to  the  angry  lion  the  crumb  of  that  new 
fugitive  slave  law  of  1850,  which  makes  every  Christian  man's  heart 
shudder  and  recoil,  when  he  thinks  that  by  any  law  of  his  native  land 
he  should  become  a  hunter  and  catcher  of  his  fellow  man  in  bondage ! 
(Applause.)  It  was  not  a  large  enough  loaf  to  throw  to  the  excited 
South.  It  was  an  outrageous  doctrine  to  make  every  northern  man  a 
slave  catcher !  The  people  muttered  and  murmured,  and  the  thunder- 
ing continued  in  the  nation  from  that  day  until  this.  I  must  give  you 
another  little  episode. 

About  this  time,  when  we  thought  the  compromise  of  1850  had 
brought  a  little  peace  into  the  country,  there  was  born  a  new  giant, 
some  of  you  may  remember  his  name,  "  Native  Americanism" — he  was 
called  sometimes,  "  Know-nothingism."  The  young  fellow  grew  rapidly 
and  mightily,  and  began  first  to  elect  local  officers,  then  to  put  in  go- 
vernors of  states,  and  by  the  year  1854,  he  gave  a  pretty  plain  indica- 
tion that  in  the  contest  of  1855  he  would  elect  a  Know-nothing  Presi- 
dent. There  was  a  Know-nothing  President  elected  in  that  year. 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  But  he  did  not  belong  technically  to  that 
class  or  party.  It  was  a  clear  case  as  politicians  looked  over  the  field, 
that  if  something  was  not  done  to  put  withs  around  this  giant,  or  crop 
the  hair  of  this  growing  Samson,  there  would  be  a  Know-nothing  Presi- 
dent in  1856.  The  giant  arose  and  struck  the  Democracy  at  one  of  its 
weak  points,  and  gave  the  contest  the  popular  aspect  of  putting  the  nation 
on  its  guard  against  the  mighty  influence  of  the  foreign  element  that 
that  party  had  been  securing.  I  think  no  statesman,  no  historian,  on 
looking  back  over  these  times  could  doubt  the  question,  that  if  that 
giant  had  been  allowed  to  go  on  he  would  have  made  the  next  Presi- 
dent, and  established  the  new  party.  But  now  good  and  wise  politicians 
and  statesmen  began  to  look  over  the  ground  and  said,  u  This  wont  do. 
What  shall  we  do?  We  must  strike  a  new  issue.  We  cannot  go  into 
this  approaching  campaign  of  1855  on  the  issue  of  Native  Americanism 
and  Democracy.  What  shall  we  do  ?  We  shall  strike  a  new  issue." 
A  new  issue  was  struck  for  the  people.  There  was  introduced  into 
Congress  that  bill  that  proposed  to  repeal  the  Compromise  of  Missouri  of 
1820,  around  which  the  memories  of  the  nation,  as  a  great  pacificator, 
had  been  clustering  for  more  than  thirty  years.  Stephen  A.  Douglas 


24 

the  keenest  politician  we  have  had  in  modern  times,  saw  exactly 
where  to  strike  this  nation's  heart,  and  when  he  and  his  compeers 
brought  forward,  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  the  famous 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  bill,  that  proposed  to  throw  open  the  territories 
of  these  United  States  to  the  ingress  of  slavery,  the  watchword  of  the 
Rebellion  -was  spoken.  Whether  those  men,  by  their  political  manceuv- 
ring,  meant  simply  to  throw  out  a  new  startling  issue  before  the  people 
of  this  nation,  and  thereby  defeat  this  young  giant;  whether  they 
looked  forward  in  the  dim  future  to  see  the  coming  storm  they  were  to 
wake  up,  and  saw  this  powerful  agitation  that  was  to  move  and  stir  the 
nation  to  an  extent  that  no  political  exorcism  in  the  future  could  put  down  ; 
whether  they  foresaw  it  would  inevitably  result  in  rebellion  and  bloodshed 
and  the  cry  of  disunion,  I  don't  pretend  to  say ;  but  history,  when  it  comes 
to  analyze  the  events  leading  to  this  Rebellion,  will  write  down  upon 
one  of  its  earliest  pages  the  man  that  spoke  the  watch-word  of  Rebellion 
in  this  country  was  Stephen  Ji.  Douglas.  That  watch-word  was  the 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  bill,  and  the  repeal  of  the  compromise  of  1820. 
(Applause.)  It  verily  made  a  new  issue  that  fixed  the  heart  of  this 
nation,  north  and  south.  Every  man  in  the  South  lifted  it  up  and  said, 
"  That  is  the  true  doctrine  for  us  :  all  the  territories  open  to  the  pecu- 
liar institution.  Away  with  the  compromises  of  the  past !"  The  men 
of  the  North  said  "  No  !  not  one  step  farther  for  this  shame  of  the  na- 
tion. (Applause.) 

A  new  party  sprang  into  power,  a  young  giant,  full-grown  at  its  birth, 
with  teeth  in  its  mouth.  (Applause.)  This  party  nominated  for  its 
candidate — T  admit  on  partizan  or  sectional  grounds — John  C.  Fremont. 
(Applause.)  The  latter  party  took  up  just  as  sectional  a  candidate  for 
the  Presidency  though  born  in  the  North,  and  the  North  has  not  felt 
very  proud  of  him.  (Laughter.)  The  contest  waged  was  a  battle  for 
the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  bill  and  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise. It  was  a  question  of  slavery  in  the  territories  of  the  nation. 
But  Buchanan  was  elected,  the  bill  was  passed,  the  Compromise  was 
gone,  Kansas  was  open.  The  most  terrible  chapter  of  blood  and  mutual 
slaughter  that  our  nation  had  ever  had  in  its  history  before,  was  written 
upon  the  plains  of  Kansas.  Four  years  of  the  most  corrupt,  imbecile, 
extravagant  and  traitorous  administration  our  government  had  ever 
known,  passed  then  ;  an  administration  when  beneath  the  very  eye,  if 
not  with  the  collusion  of  the  President  himself,  treason  was  practiced 
and  matured  and  ripened  into  life.  The  South  distinctly  understood 
from  the  time  of  that  contest — the  Toombses,  the  Davises,  the  Yanceys, 
the  Tulees — all  saw  that  the  contest  sprung  upon  the  nation  in  1855,  m 


25 

1859-60  would  win  upon  the  side  of  liberty,  right  and  the  law ;  and  it 
was  a  foregone  conclusion  they  must  separate  and  divide.  The  Southern 
papers  spake  it  out  clearly,  conventions  announced  it  distinctly — James 
Buchanan  was  to  be  the  last  President  of  the  whole  United  States. 
During  those  four  years,  I  say,  everything  was  done,  distinctly  and 
avowedly,  to  prepare  for  this  contest.  Men  occupying  positions  in  the 
Cabinet  itself  were  traitors,  scattering  our  armies,  sending  off  our  navy, 
distributing  into  the  South  arms  and  munitions  of  war — practicing  those 
arts  of  treason  beneath  the  very  eye  of  the  President  himself.  Oh ! 
what  a  blot  on  the  history  of  this  nation  will  be  those  four  years  of  the 
administration  of  James  Buchanan.  Now  another  campaign  came,  and 
we  must  have  new  candidates  for  the  great  struggle  of  1860.  The  Re- 
publican party  laid  down  its  platform.  It  was  a  platform  that  had  for 
its  most  prominent  principle  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  territo- 
ries of  the  United  States  forever ;  and  selected  for  their  candidate 
honest  Abraham  Lincoln.  (Applause.)  A  convention  to  elect  a  can- 
didate for  the  opposite  party  met  in  Charleston,  and  from  the  commence- 
ment it  was  evident  that  there  were  two  parties  on  hand ;  a  Northern 
party,  ready  for  the  same  old  Douglas  platform  of  the  previous  four 
years ;  ready  to  make  every  concession  that  could  be  made  to  this  Mo- 
loch of  Slavery,  whose  thirst  was  so  great  that  nothing  would  satisfy  it, 
but  the  free  access  and  ingress  of  slavery  to  all  the  territories  of  the 
United  States.  Even  the  Democratic  party  could  not  swallow  that,  and 
the  convention  voted,  one  wing  nominating  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  a  man 
who  has  gone  to  render  his  account  to  God.  The  old  logical  saying, 
nil  de  mortuum  nisi  bonum,  I  would  apply  to  Mr.  Douglas,  a  true  and 
honest  patriot  I  freely  believe  in  my  heart ;  a  man  that  meant  well  to 
his  country,  1  have  not  a  doubt,  notwithstanding  what  I  have  said  above. 
I  am  only  sorry  it  was  not  in  the  counsels  of  the  Infinite  One  to  leave 
him  for  us  in  this  contest.  We  would  have  found  him  heartily  on  the 
side  of  the  government  and  of  the  Union,  and  his  powerful  influence 
might  have  told  mightily  in  this  struggle.  He  has  gone  to  his  reward 
and  to  his  portion. 

Another  party  bolted,  but  met  again  in  preliminary  convention  at 
Richmond.  (Laughter.)  They  laid  down  a  new  platform,  and  reassembled 
in  Baltimore  to  establish  their  new  creed  by  the  nomination  of  Breckin- 
ridge  and  Lane.  Then  we  had  three  parties  in  the  contest.  Let  us 
look  for  a  moment  at  the  platforms  offered  to  the  American  people.  It 
was  the  contest  that  brought  on  the  Rebellion.  You  will  find  the  divid- 
ing line  of  all  was  the  simple  position  they  took  with  regard  to  the  status 
of  slavery  in  the  territories  of  the  United  States.  Said  the  Republican 


26 

party,  "  Slavery  must  not  be  extended  any  farther  into  the  territories  of 
the  United  States — Congress  has  the  power  to  limit  it."  Said  the  party  of 
Mr.  Douglas,  and  of  that  platform,  "  Leave  the  question  of  slavery  alone 
to  be  settled  by  these  territories  themselves,  and  after  they  have  settled 
it,  and  come  up  to  Congress  asking  for  admission  into  the  Union,  it  is 
the  simple  duty  of  Congress  to  admit  or  reject:  Congress  has  no  power 
over  the  matter."  Said  the  Breckenridge  and  Lane  platform — the  ex- 
treme Southern  platform,  "  Slavery  is  entitled  to  its  position  and  place 
in  all  the  territories  held  as  the  common  property  of  the  United  States, 
and  Congress  has  the  power  and  owes  the  duty,  to  guard  and  defend  it 
in  its  introduction  into  these  territories. 

The  three  parties  took  their  grounds.  It  may  appear  to  some  that  the 
party  that  ought  to  prevail  was  the  middle  party,  the  one  that  proclaimed 
what  might  be  called  a  compromise.  We  have  the  saying,  "  in  media 
tutissimus  ibis"  safety  lies  in  the  medium ;  avoid  extremes  and  you 
have  the  safe  course.  I  admit  here  was  the  medium.  There  was  the 
Republican  party,  saying  "  No  slavery  in  the  territories  at  all ;"  there 
was  the  other,  the  extreme  Southern  party,  saying  "  Slavery  in  all  the 
territories  if  we  can  put  it  there ;"  and  there  stood  the  medium  party 
saying,  "  Let  it  alone,  if  the  North  can  keep  it  out  of  the  territories  it  is 
best,  if  the  South  can  put  it  into  the  territories,  all  right."  That  seems 
like  occupying  the  middle  ground.  I  voted  for  the  first  one,  for  the  plat- 
form of  the  Republican  party,  and  you  have  a  right  to  ask  the  question, 
why  not  follow  then  the  old  adage?  Would  itxnot  have  been  wise  to 
have  taken  that  middle  ground  which  would  probably  have  pacified  both 
parties^  I  answer  I  had  read  with  tears  in  my  eyes  the  terrible  history 
of  Kansasv  I.  had  seen  this  experiment  of  "  letting  it  alone."  The 
nation  had  been  groaning  for  four  years  under  the  cries  of  suffering  men 
in  this  far  western  state  as  the  North  was  trying  to  make  Kansas  free, 
and  the  South  to  make  Kansas  slave,  and  I  recoiled,  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands, yea  millions  of  voting  freemen  of  the  North,  recoiled  from  the 
thought  that  Nebraska  should  be  a  Kansas,  and  Utah  should  be  a  Kan- 
sas, and  New  Mexico  should  bo  a  Kansas,  and  every  coining  territory 
and  developing  future  state  of  our  country  should  be  a  Kansas,  drenched 
with  blood,  baptized  with  the  slaughter  of  its  own  children,  before  it 
should  come  into  this  Union.  That  is  what  the  platform  meant,  and 
that  is  why  the  parties  arranged  themselves  side  by  side,  understanding 
distinctly  there  was  no  compromise  when  they  had  reached  these  two 
extremes.  They  intended  somebody  should  win,  and  they  knew  who 
would  be  elected.  The  South  meant  that  the  Republican  party  should 
succeed,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  be  President  of  the  United  States.  It 


27 

was  a  success,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  was  elected :  and  now  the  idea  of 
secession,  disunion  and  separation  came  up  all  over  the  South.  The 
die  is  cast,  we  can  live  no  longer  with  the  North. 

On  the  20th  December,  1800,  before  any  act  whatever  had  been 
passed  by  Congress,  and  long  before  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  inaugurated, 
South  Carolina  unfurled  the  banner  of  Rebellion.  Congress  assembled, 
bills  were  offered  to  pacify  the  South,  compromises  were  presented,  no- 
thing was  accepted.  The  same  Mr.  Douglas  now  came  forward  like  an 
honest  patriot,  and  took  his  stand  on  the  side  of  the  Union,  and  said  to 
the  man  who  is  now  the  President  of  the  Southern  Confederacy,  "  Mr. 
Davis  we  can  get  for  you,  without  a  difficulty,  the  Crittenden  Compro- 
mise ;"  said  Mr.  Davis,  "  We  will  have  no  compromise,  we  mean  to 
separate."  They  were  yet  as  you  understand  distinctly,  in  both  houses 
of  Congress,  in  power,  and  might  have  passed  any  laws  or  any  bills  of 
concession ;  and  with  a  little  trembling  and  misgiving,  many  a  Repub- 
lican too  in  that  Congress  would  possibly  and  probably  have  gone  over 
when  the  coming  storm  was  in  the  futnre.  No,  it  would  not  do.  A  peace 
convention  was  called.  The  best  and  wisest  statesmen  of  the  North  and 
South  met  to  devise  measures  to  make  peace.  They  offered  the  Critten- 
den Compromise  ;  you  remember  what  it  was — "  We  will  give  you  all 
south  of  36°  40',  and  all  you  can  get  besides  on  the  southern  side  of 
that  line  was  implied  in  it — will  that  suit  you  V  "  No,"  said  a  promi- 
nent leader  in  this  Rebellion,  "  If  you  were  to  get  us  a  carle  blanche 
on  which  to  write  our  conditions  we  would  write  nothing  ;  we  mean  to 
separate."  On  the  7th  day  of  January,  1861,  Senator  Tulee  of 
Florida,  wrote  to  his  constituents  froin  Washington,  in  these  words — 
"  I  send  to  you  herewith  a  report  of  the  doings  of  a  meeting  of  south- 
ern representatives,  representing  the  States  of  Florida,  Alabama,  Geor- 
gia, Louisiana,  and  Texas,  held  in  this  city  last  night,  to  take  into 
consideration  the  best  means  of  separating  from  this  Union.  We 
agreed  that  it  was  best  for  the  Southern  States  to  separate,  and  that 
the  separation  should  be  made  on  or  about  the  14th  of  February.  We 
put  it  off  thus  into  the  future  to  enable  Louisiana  and  Texas  to  join  with 
us."  Signed  by  fourteen  Senators,  representing  seven  Southern  States. 
You  remember  South  Carolina  was  already  out.  How  that  reads  like 
the  doings  of  the  celebrated  Convention  of  1790,  in  bloody  Paris  !  How 
that  reads  like  the  history  of  Catiline  and  his  co-conspiritors  eighteen 
centuries  ago  !  Fourteen  Congressmen  of  the  United  States  sitting  by 
day  in  January  and  February  of  1861,  sitting  by  day  in  the  halls  of 
Congress,  plotting  to  separate  from  the  Union,  and  in  spite  of  all 
efforts  of  the  administration  to  stay  the  coming  storm,  at  night  retiring 


28 

to  their  silent  caucuses  to  develop  more  securely  still  their  schemes  of 
disruption  and  rebellion  1  Oh !  that  we  had  had  in  that  day  a  Cicero 
for  these  Catilines !  Oh !  that  we  had,  as  Rome  had,  its  dark  chamber 
beneath  the  capitol  into  which  the  traitor  entered,  but  out  of  which  no 
man  ever  came.  (Applause.)  The  die  was  cast.  State  after  State 
seceded  from  the  Union,  fort  after  fort  was  taken,  arsenal  after  arsenal 
was  robbed,  mint  after  mint,  and  the  property  of  the  nation  appropriated 
to  the  use  of  the  Rebellion.  Major  Anderson  moved  from  Moultrie  into 
Sumter — promptly  'Carolina  moved  into  Moultrie.  The  Star  of  the 
West  on  her  pacific  voyage  to  feed  hungry  men  entered  the  harbor  of 
Charleston,  and  the  first  gun  of  the  Rebellion  was  fired  upon  this  peaceful 
messenger,  and  all  this  before  a  single  man  had  been  called  by  the 
newly  elected  President,  all  this  before  the  4th  day  of  March,  1861 ! 
All  what  ?  Why  the  South  had  seceded,  the  Southern  Confederacy 
organized,  Jeff.  Davis  inaugurated,  thirty  thousand  men  called  for,  a 
pacific  vessel  fired  upon  by  the  traitors,  fort  after  fort,  naval  position 
after  naval  position  seized  upon  by  these  men,  and  then  at  last,  though 
the  President  was  inaugurated  and  gave  out  his  pacific  proclamation, 
determined  to  adhere  strictly  to  the  platform  on  which  he  had  been 
elected,  though  the  North  stooped  even  to  pusillanimity  again  to  make 
friends  with  these  men,  at  the  last  the  emergency  came,  and  our  noble 
heroes  of  Sumter  were  starving.  Again  our  proposals  peacefully  to 
give  them  food  on  which  to  live  were  refused.  "  No,"  said  the  men, 
*'  we  must  have  war." 

The  President  of  the  Southern  Confederacy,  on  the  llth  of  April, 
"  cried  havoc,  and  let  loose  the  dogs  of  war."  It  was  done  to  fire  the 
heart  of  the  South,  and  it  fired  the  heart  of  the  JVort/i.  ( Applause. )  An 
indignant  people  now  endeavored  to  crush  the  Rebellion  beneath  the 
hand  of  the  government.  Mr.  Lincoln  called  for  seventy-five  thousand 
men,  and  thirty-five  thousand  more  were  called  for  by  Davis.  This  is 
the  beginning  of  the  struggle.  Yet  said  these  men,  "  you  drove  us  into 
the  war."  After  making  every  preparation  and  every  arrangement  to 
strike  the  first  blow,  against  every  concession  a  free,  and  generous,  and 
noble  people  could  make,  yet  these  miserable  traitors  and  their  sympa- 
thizers in  the  North  say,  "  You  pressed  us  and  left  us  nothing  but 
battle  and  war!" 

You  ask  now,  in  conclusion,  "  how  we  got  into  this  war  ?"  Two 
people  differing  in  spirit  and  aspirations,  two  societies  differing  in  their 
civilization  have  come  at  last,  after  slow  and  long  development,  into  an 
actual  conflict  of  arms  ;  a  conflict  that  perhaps  no  human  wisdom  could 
have  prevented.  One  or  the  other  of  two  antagonistic  civilizations  as 


29 

these  must  be  crushed,  for  both  cannot  live  together.  Do  you  ask  what 
brought  us  into  this  conflict  ?  I  answer  the  corruption  that  was  spread 
throughout  all  our  land,  the  defection  of  politicians  from  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  national  government,  and  the  consequent  ministering  to  party 
schemes  and  partizan  interests.  You  ask  what  led  to  this  struggle  ?  I 
answer  chiefly,  and  above  all,  slavery  is  the  heart,  the  spirit,  and  the 
soul  that  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  causes  I  have  mentioned  before, 
(Applause.)  Why  are  we  a  different  people  and  have  a  different  society 
and  spirit  and  civilization  ?  Because  in  the  North  we  are  free,  and  in 
the  South  they  hold  their  fellow-men  in  bonds.  Why  have  we  become 
profoundly  politically  corrupt  in  the  past  ?  I  answer  ;  because  there 
was  one  section  of  our  country  that  had  an  immediate  interest  incorpo- 
rated with  its  life,  around  which  it  rallied  all  its  power,  over  which  it 
threw  its  whole  guardian  care,  and  for  which  it  bought  the  votes  of  the 
nation  to  sustain  it  in  existence.  What  has  brought  these  collisions 
that  I  have  mentioned  in  the  past?  I  answer  since  1820  it  was  slavery  ; 
in  1832  it  was  slavery;  in  1844  it  was  slavery;  in  1850  it  was 
slavery  ;  in  1855  it  was  slavery  ;  in  1860  it  was  slavery.  It  was  the 
corner  stone  of  the  Confederacy.  In  the  first  speech  of  the  Vice- Presi- 
dent, of  that  non-descriptj  the  cause  of  the  war  is  represented  to  be  that 
institution  which  has  nursed  its  spirit  in  the  South,  and  has  awakened 
opposition  in  the  North. 

We  are  in  war.  Why  ?  Because  the  world  moves,  because  society 
grows,  because  Christianity  advances,  because  the  earth,  in  each  cycle 
it  makes,  sloughs  off  a  mass  of  sin  and  hell,  and  rolls  onward  toward 
that  brighter  day,  when  heaven  and  earth  in  peace  shall  meet  and  kiss 
each  other.  (Applause.)  Why  are  we  in  war?  Because  the  world 
has  grown  too  old  to  be  blotted  any  longer  by  slavery.  Why  are  they 
in  Rebellion  ?  Because  Christianity  has  gone  so  far  that  the  time  has 
come  to  cry  liberty  to  the  bondsman.  (Applause.) 

Slavery  then,  we  answer,  and  the  recoil  of  human  nature  against  this 
system,  has  been  the  spirit,  the  life  and  the  soul  of  this  Rebellion. 
"  No,"  says  some  man,  "  it  was  you  Yankees."  (Laughter.)  "  It  was 
you  Northerners.  You  would  not  let  slavery  alone."  I  don't  agree 
with  you.  I  don't  believe  that  that  caused  the  Rebellion  ;  but  if  it  did, 
if  you  are  right  in  that  opinion,  it  simply  proves  what  I  have  said.  It 
is  a  very  clear  case  that  the  Yankee  would  not  have  talked  about  a 
thing  if  it  had  been  non  est.  If  there  had  been  none  of  this  evil,  it 
would  not  have  stirred  the  heart  of  Christianity,  not  simply  in  Yankee- 
dom,  but  through  the  whole  North — throughout  the  whole  world.  I 
admit  that  speech-making,  book-writiBg  and  sermon-preaching  had 


30 

much  to  do  in  awakening  this  contest.  T  admit  that  the  world  is 
moving  onward  in  its  march  toward  better  tilings,  and  that  stirred  the 
hearts  of  the  men  who  felt  guilty  in  their  consciences  of  a  wrong  against 
humanity.  Why  didn't  they  keep  still  ?  Because  they  could  not. 
Why  didn't  Peter  and  John  keep  still  when  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim  said, 
"speak  no  more  or  we  will  give  thee  stripes  and  imprisonment."  Said 
Peter  and  John,  "  we  cannot  but  speak  the  things  we  have  seen  and 
heard."  Put  down  the  voice  that  speaks  against  this  oppression  and 
wrong  ?•  Dam  up  the  Niagara ;  stop  the  already  exploding  volcano ;  hurl 
back  the  flashing  lightning,  and  then  talk  of  this  'advancing  spirit  of 
humanity,  and  command  it  to  be  still  in  the  presence  of  this  human 
wrong!  Only  a  little  while  ago  in  this  advancing  spirit  of  the  age, 
Russia  offered  deliverance  to  her  serfs,  and  shall  we  in  this  great 
country,  whose  pride  is. liberty,  and  which  God  has  made  the  palladium 
of  human  rights,  shall  we  keep  still  and  let  this  gigantic  wrong  grow 
and  spread  and  prosper  in  our  land  ?  No.  (Applause.)  You  ask  too 
large  a  price  for  the  privilege.  What  is  it  ?  Some  few  families,  at  the 
utmost  measurement  some  three  hundred  thousand  men,  in  the  South, 
cried  out  "  let  us  alone,  we  must  have  these  bondsmen,  it  is  our  institu- 
tion, it  is  our  right."  Mark  it !  three  hundred  thousand  men,  women 
and  children,  perhaps  some  ten  thousand  families  have  this  claim  on 
these  millions  of  men  they  are  holding  in  bondage !  And  now  what 
price  do  they  ask  ?  They  say  to  the  world,  "  stop  your  free  press  ; 
close  up  your  free  schools  :  silence  your  free  church  and  pulpit ;  away 
with  all  these  utterances  of  evil  and  these  cries  after  the  welfare  of 
humanity  ;  stop  the  car  of  human  progress  ;  stay  the  onward  march  of 
Christianity;  hold  back  the  course  of  civilization  itself!"  Why? 
Why  shall  I  not  speak  from  my  sacred  pulpit  the  counsel  of  God  ? 
"  Because  /  want  to  hold  slaves."  Why  shall  I  chain  the  free  press  of 
America  and  distort  its  utterings?  "Because  /(this  little  minority  of 
humanity)  wish  to  hold  slaves."  Why  must  Christianity  distort  itself, 
and  misrepresent  itself,  and  become  corrupt,  and  bow,  and  cringe,  and 
stoop,  and  stay  its  onward  progress  of  triumph,  why  ?  "  Because  7 
wish  to  hold  slaves."  Admit  your  ground  is  right,  that  it  is  the 
onward  progress  of  liberty  and  right  that  has  brought  on  this  collision 
between  the  two  sections  of  our  country ;  then  it  still  is  true,  that 
slavery  lies  at  its  foundation.  I  don't  believe  that  that  is  its  cause.  It 
has  been  mighty ;  but  tenfold  more  mighty  has  been  that  degeneracy  of 
society,  that  corruption  of  the  community ;  that  hardening  of  hearts, 
that  searing  of  consciences,  that  development  of  a  thirst  for  gold,  that 


31 

ambition   for  lawlessness  and  aristocracy,  that  is  the  fruit  of  slavery 
itself,  that  has  led  us  into  this  conflict. 

With  these  remarks,  I  thank  you  for  the  patient  hearing  you  have 
given  me.  I  have  talked  longer  than  I  thought  to  have  clone.  I  have 
presented  to  you  -what  strikes  me  as  the  causes  of  the  present  Rebellion. 
I  have  tried  honestly  to  answer  the  question,  "  How  we  got  in  ?"  If 
some  of  my  facts  as  I  have  stated  them  are  new,  they  are  the  results 
of  patient  study  and  examination.  If  some  of  them  cross  }Tour  preju- 
dices, it  is  not  a  time  for  prejudice  when  a  nation  trembles  in  the  bal- 
ance held  up  by  its  God.  It  is  not  a  time  for  prejudice  when  weeping 
widows  and  desolated  houses  are  saddening  the  whole  North  and  South. 
Away  with  all  these  prejudices,  and  look  fairly  in  the  face  of  the  facts, 
and  see  the  black  and  damning  cause  that  has  led  this  nation  steadily 
on  until  it  has  plunged  us  into  bloodshed  and  war.  (Applause.) 


HOW    TO    QET    OUT. 


I  shall  have  to  crave  your  indulgence  again  this  evening  with  a  few 
personal  remarks.  You  have  already  discovered  that  I  am  quite  hoarse. 
I  should  much  better,  I  presume,  be  at  home  in  bed,  than  attempting  to 
speak  to-night  5  yet  I  think  if  you  will  allow  me  to  talk  a  little  carefully 
at  first,  until  I  get  my  vocal  organs  warmed  up  and  ready  for  opera- 
tion, I  shall  be  able  to  continue  the  lecture  of  the  evening. 

I  have  come,  then,  such  as  you  find  me,  and  shall  try  to  do  the  best 
I  can  in  presenting  the  thoughts  of  the  evening  on  the  subject  announced 
for  the  lecture — "  How  to  get  out  of  the  war." 

We  tried  to  direct  your  attention  on  last  Tuesday  evening  to  "  Plow 
we  got  into  the  war,"  and  we  did  so  because  we  think  it  essential  to 
getting  out  that  we  rightly  understand  how  we  got  in.  As  a  practicing 
physician  for  a  number  of  years,  I  learned  that  it  was  very  important  in 
coming  to  visit  a  patient  to  find  out  what  was  the  cause  of  the  man's 
disease,  especially  if  it  was  a  cause  within  himself  or  that  was  constantly 
operating,  in  order  to  relieve  him  from  his  malady ;  and  when  I  had  found 
out  that  cause,  I  had  gained  so  much  towards  his  cure.  I  recollect  about 
a  year  ago  at  a  meeting  occupying  the  platform  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia 
in  connection  with  another  gentleman.  We  were  speaking  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  war.  He  was  a  peculiar  kind  of  War-Democrat,  and  friend 
of  the  war  and  government,  and  had  a  great  deal  to  .say  about  these 
"  hot  Republicans,"  and  about  the  reverence  that  was  shown  to  the 
negro  and  to  slavery,  and  used  one  of  the  most  powerful  sentences  I 
think  I  ever  heard  in  showing  the  absurdity  of  paying  any  attention  to 
the  cause  of  this  Rebellion.  I  felt  a  little  warm  while  I  was  sitting 
behind  him,  and  listened  to  his  remarks  pretty  decidedly,  not  knowing 
exactly  where  I  could  hit  him,  until  he  finally  made  use  of  an  illustra- 
tion. It  was  this : — "  What  would  you  think  of  a  physician  who  came 
to  attend  a  man  with  a  cold,  who  would  begin  to  examine  his  boots, 
and  on  finding  that  his  cold  had  come  from  his  having  a  hole  in  his  boot, 
to  cure  the  man,  would  order  the  boot  to  be  mended?  Would  not  that 
be  absurd  ?"  Perhaps  it  would ;  and  yet  there  are  some  occasions  in 
which  the  mending  of  the  boot;  although  it  might  not  cure  the  cold  that 

(32) 


33 

he  already  had,  would  hare  a  decided  effect  in  keeping  off  the  next. 
(Laughter.)  I  thought  I  had  the  advantage,  and  could  give  a  better 
illustration.  You  see  his  illustration  was  simply  a  special  one  to  apply 
to  a  general  subject.  I  took  as  my  illustration  a  general  one,  that  led 
its  application  to  a  general  subject  such  as  the  Rebellion  is.  I  called 
the  attention  of  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia  to  the  condition  of  their 
streets,  their  sewers  and  alleys,  and  said,  suppose  there  was  a  fatal 
disease  ravaging  this  city,  spfung  evidently  from  the  corruption  and 
filth  collected  in  your  streets  and  alleys,  would  there  be  anything 
absurd  in  removing  these  filthy  accumulations  in  order  to  stay  the 
ravages  and  progress  of  this  disease  ?  And  the  audience  saw  my  illus- 
tration was  best,  and  took  him  down  and  put  me  up.  (Laughter.) 

Before  I  take  up  the  question — "How  are  we  to  get  out  of  the 
war" — I  would  like  to  consider  it  in  a  negative  form,  and  show  how  not 
to  get  out  of  it.  I  think  that  during  the  past  two  and  a  half  years  "tfe 
have  had  not  a  few  people  in  this  country  that  are  not  particularly 
anxious  to  get  out  of  the  war,  and  decidedly  prefer  to  continue  iny 
especially  in  some  quarters  where  it  is  a  paying  operation,  or  with  some 
because  it  makes  political  capital ;  some  especially  who  would  wish  the 
war  to  continue  at  least  during  the  year  1864.  You  can  contribute 
very  considerably  towards  the  perpetuity  of  the  war  upon  us  by  being  a 
peace  man — always  talking  about  the  pleasures  of  peace,  always  refer- 
ring us  back  to  the  halcyon  days  that  we  had  before  the  war  came,  com- 
plaining terribly  about  the  taxes  that  this  war  is  bringing  upon  us, 
talking  about  the  loss  of  our  liberty,  the  terrible  tyranny  and  oppression 
0f  our  government.  To  perpetuate  this  war,  do  everything  you  can  to 
make  the  community  in  general  believe  that  the  country  is  going  to  be 
ruined.  If  you  are  down  in  the  lower  walks  of  life,  oppose  every- 
thing the  government  undertakes  to  do.  A  capital  thing  to  oppose  is  the 
draft.  If  the  government  calls  for  men  to  sustain  itself,  don't  go  your- 
self, and  don't  let  any  other  man  go  if  you  can  help  it.  If  you  are  not 
a  pious  man,  swear  a  little,  curse  the  negro,  say  all  you  can  against  this 
downtrodden  and  persecuted  race.  If  you  are  an  editor,  you  have  a 
large  field  and  much  better  opportunity  for  carrying  out  this  idea.  If 
you  are  an  editor,  bring  out  a  leading  editorial  in  every  paper  against 
the  absurdity  of  the  measures  of  the  government.  Convince  the  people 
that  read  your  paper  the  government  is  wrong.  Give  them  to  under- 
stand that  if  you  were  placed  at  the  head  of  the  administration  you 
would  soon  bring  the  war  to  a  close.  But  the  best  capital  you  can 
make  is  by  speaking  of  the  tyranny  of  the  government.  Convince  the 
people  they  are  losing  their  liberty,  so  that  every  man  who  reads  your 
3 


34 

paper  can  see  while  you  are  complaining  about  the  curtailment  of 
liberty  you  have  gone  yourself  into  Jacobinism  and  libertinism.  If 
you  are  in  the  legislature,  you  are  in  a  capital  position  to  continue  the 
war  for  several  years  to  come.  Make  the  legislation  of  simple  billg 
that  for  three  readings  would  last  three  days,  make  them  last  all  the 
winter.  Divide  yourselves  off  into  strict  party  votes.  Insist  on  every- 
thing that  shall  be  made  to  bear  on  the  interest  of  your  party,  that  a 
measure  shall  be  popular  or  unpopular,  just  as  it  promotes  the  interest  of 
the  party  platform  on  which  you  stand. 

When  the  government  comes  forward  to  ask  for  men,  use  all  the 
legislation  you  can  command  against  it.  Become  terribly  afraid  about 
the  independence  and  sovereignty  of  the  individual  states.  Be  greatly 
alarmed  for  the  honor  of  his  excellency  the  Governor,  for  fear  he  should 
lose  his  dignity.  Get  up  a  bill  to  keep  the  soldiers  at  least  two  miles 
away  from  any  polls  of  an  election.  (Applause.)  Be  sure  that  on  no 
account  you  allow  the  soldier  to  have  a  vote,  for  he  is  generally  likely 
to  be  a  loyal  and  true  man,  and  true  to  his  country.  (Applause.)  If 
you  are  Governor  of  a  state,  you  are  in  a  capital  position  to  continue 
the  war  for  an  indefinite  period  to  come.  Get  out  your  naming  message 
every  time  the  legislature  meets.  Put  in  your  message  the  most  ridicu- 
lous and  absurd  distortions  of  all  that  has  been  done  the  previous  year 
by  the  administration.  Be  remarkably  strict  in  standing  on  your 
dignity  as  Governor  of  the  State.  If  there  should  come  a  draft  in  your 
state,  be  particular  about  the  number  of  men ;  be  sure  to  count  the  en- 
listments under  your  administration,  so  that  you  see  how  many  men  have 
been  taken ;  if  you  make  a  mistake  of  seventy  thousand  men,  it  don't 
make  any  difference,  it  delays  the  government.  Make  the  humbler 
classes  believe  they  are  persecuted,  that  they  are  awfully  burdened  by 
the  grandest  tyranny  that  ever  came  into  the  world.  Excite  them  under 
the  idea  of  the  persecution  that  has  come  upon  them  in  the  form  of  a 
draft.  If  you  get  them  so  excited  that  they  begin  to  gather  in  mobs  in 
the  streets,  if  they  begin  to  kill  men  and  destroy  property,  and  make  a 
new  Rebellion,  don't  be  scared,  just  go  in  among  them  and  call  them 
friends.  (Applause.)  If  you  can  get  in  Congress,  you  have  a  fine 
opportunity  to  delay  the  operations  of  the  government,  and  to  continue 
the  war.  I  need  not  delay  you  long  on  the  chances  you  would  have  in 
this  position,  because  we  have  had  some  capital  examples.  There  is 
Vallandigham.  You  can  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  Breckinridge  during 
his  ^brief  congressional  administration.  You  can  follow  Burnett  of 
Kentucky,  or  his  patron  from  the  same  state,  Davis,  and  oppose  every- 
thing that  tends  to  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war.  Insist  upon  it 


35 

that  the  most  profound  respect  and  reverence  shall  be  paid  to  the  pro- 
perty question.  And  here  permit  Hie  to  say,  that  of  all  the  absurd 
things  that  has  come  before  my  mind  in  this  war,  nothing  has  made  me 
feel  smaller  as  an  American  than  this  same  property  question.  Read 
over  the  doings  of  the- legislature  and  Congress,  and  you  would  think 
that  property  was  truly  the  £rcat  Deity  of  the  American  people.  The 
right  of  all  rights.,  the  sacred  thing  above  all  saered  things*  And  no 
matter  in  what  form  that  property  is  found,  whether  it  is  real  and  im- 
movable estate,  of  movable  estate  standing  on  two  feet,  it  is  the  same 
thing.  You  may  take  men,  you  may  protract  the  war,  you  may  shed 
seas  of  blood,  but  don't  touch  property.  Stand  on  that  ground  as  you 
stand  on  your  life.  No  pity  for  the  poor  widow's  son  :  take  him,  no 
matter;  take  the  father's  joy  and  hope,  no  mattery  take  the  stay  and 
support  of  a  family  :  iet  them  all  .go  ;  but  don't  touch  the  man  whose 
face  is  black ;  don't  touch  a  man  whom  another  claims  as  property ;  in 
fact  risk  the  perpetuity  of  the  Republic  rather  than  lay  your  hand  on 
the  great  ideal  of  human  property.  I  am  sick  of  this> 

la  reading  over  one  of  the  speeches  ki  Congress,  made  by  a  gentle- 
man  already  named  to-night,  did  you  ever  see  anything  more  absurd 
than  the  ground  taken  by  that  gentleman  on  the  paying-for-the-negro 
question?  Now  I  don't  care,  nor  do  you  care,  whether  cr  not  the 
owner  is  paid  for  his  slave ;  but  in  this  time  of  war,  in  this  struggle  for 
the  Ration's  life,  it  does  strike  me  as  the  most  nauseating  thing  I  have 
ever  found  in  human  history,  that  we  may  take  all  the  white  men  for 
the  service  of  the  government,  with  not  a  word  about  pay,  but  must  not 
touch  a  black  man  who  is  held  in  bondage— must  sacredly  observe  the 
bonds  of  this  poor  wretch.  The  draftsman  may  go  into  your  house  and 
take  the  son,  the  hope  of  your  future  life,  worth  ten  thousand  slaves  in 
your  estimation,  and  who  is  to  pay,  or  who  dreams  of  asking  the 
government  to  pay  for  this  son  of  your  heart's  love,  and  of  the  care  of 
years !  Yet,  if  he  enters  into  the  Southern  man's  house,  or  into  the 
border  states,  and  lays  his  hand  on  this  biped,  the  government  may- 
have  him  on  the  condition  that  he  is  paid  for !  The  poor  widow's  son 
may  be 'thrust  into  the  army,  and  who  talks  about  compensating  or 
paying  her  for  the  use  of  her  son  ?  Yet  the  black  man  must  be  paid 
for  because  he  is  property,  and  the  government  must  stoop  from  its 
high  position  assumed  eighty  years  ago,  and  for  the  sake  of  this  miser- 
able principle  recognise  property  in  man*  Where  in  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  is  ever  recognized  that  principle  ?  Throughout  that 
sacred  document,  we  have  never  yielded  the  point  j  our  fathers  were 
wiser  men  than  that  to  recognize  in  a  public  document — the  corner 


36 

stone  of  our  national  government — property  in  our  fellow  man.  The 
term  the  Constitution  uses  for  these  men  is  "  persons  held  to  service," 
and  recognizes  them  distinctly  as  persons,  and  has  always  (permit  me  to 
say  very  unjustly)  been  allowing  a  large  representation  in  the  govern- 
ment of  our  country  in  behalf  of  these  persons.  And  yet  when  these 
persons  so  noticed  in  the  Constitution  of  the  country,  and  so  represented 
in  Congress,  are  needed  for  the  country's  service,  editors  by  hundreds 
and  politicians  by  thousands,  say  the  country  has  no  right  to  touch  this 
property,  or  to  lay  hold  upon  a  man  who  is  held  as  the  property  of  an- 
other. It  is  just  like  that  other  absurd  principle  that  has  seemed  so 
strange  to  me — the  demand  for  recognizing  the  rights  of  traitors  under 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States !  You  must  not  confiscate  the 
traitor's  property.  Why  1  Property  is  something  sacred  and  beloved 
in  the  American  mind.  Be  careful  of  the  traitor's  Constitutional 
Eights.  You  must  not  hurt  the  traitor.  Whip  him  easy,  get  him 
subdued  softly,  bring  him  back  gently ',  leave  him  as  well  off  when  the 
war  is  done  as  when  he  commenced  it;  fight  him  with  magnanimity, 
with  philanthropy  ;  but  above  all  things  don't  hurt  the  traitor !  Where 
in  all  the  history  of  the  world  have  we  learned  the  fact  except  in 
America — a  principle  largely  used  by  some  men — that  the  traitor 
having  gone  out  from  under  his  government,  thrown  off  his  allegiance 
to  the  government,  takes  up  arms  against  his  government,  grasping  at 
the  very  throat  and  life  of  the  nation,  must  have  still  preserved  the 
Constitutional  Rights  that  belong  to  him  as  a  true  and  loyal  citizan  * 
My  hearers,  I  read  history,  and  I  learn  there  is  one  right  that  belongs 
to  a  traitor.  When  a  man  lifts  up  his  arm  to  shed  the  blood  of  the 
country,  he  forfeits  all  rights  but  one,  and  that  is  the  right  to  hemp 
enough  to  hang  him.  (Applause.) 

Now  look  at  the  absurdity.  The  traitor  has  lost  every  right,  even 
that  of  his  life — and  is  not  life  the  most  sacred  possession  ?  Is  it  not  the 
most  valuable  possession1? — And  yet  here  is  the  cry,  "you  must  not 
touch  his  property  nor  harm  anything  that  belongs  to  him."  You  must 
religiously  conduct  the  war  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  him  as  well  off 
in  the  end  as  he  was  when  he  began.  If  you  follow  out  this  plan  as 
citizen,  as  editor,  as  legislator,  as  governor,  and  as  congressman,  you 
can  perpetuate  the  war  for  any  indefinite  number  of  years  to  come ; 
and  if  any  of  you  should  happen  to  get  into  the  position  of  general,  then 
you  have  a  capital  opportunity.  You  have  simply  to  gather  your  army 
together,  take  nearly  one  year  to  drill  it ;  (Laughter)  every  other  day 
have  a  grand  review  of  a  division,  get  everything  ready  to  move,  tell 
the  country  you  are  going  to  move,  and  then  find  out  that  the  ambu- 


37 

lances  are  not  on  hand.  (Laughter.)  Get  the  ambulances  all  ready, 
tell  the  nation  you  are  ready  now  to  move,  then  find  out  that  you  need 
thirty  wagons  to  carry  your  baggage.  (Laughter.)  When  the  thirty 
wagons  are  made  you  can  call  in  council  your  other  generals,  and  con- 
clude it  is  not  time  to  move  yet.  (Laughter.)  No  matter  if  a  higher 
power  says  move,  you  delay,  and  when  you  do  move  you  will  only 
have  to  battle  with  double-headed  Dutchmen  and  Quaker  guns. 
(Laughter.)  What  difference?  You  have  delayed  the  war!  Try  it 
again  ;  strike  out  and  take  some  new  and  unwonted  course  to  find  the 
goal — Richmond — and  settle  down  before  Yorktown,  lose  a  good  ex- 
ample (Laughter),  and  if  there  is  only  ten  thousand  men  there  so  much 
the  worse.  If  you  have  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  or  two  hun- 
dred thousand  men,  what  is  the  use  of  making  a  sudden  attack  on  these 
men  ;  that  would  not  be  fair.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  Begin  to  lay 
siege  to  the  town  :  throw  out  miles  of  fortification,  spend  thirty  days  in 
front  of  these  ten  thousand  men,  and  all  the  time  throw  out  the  idea 
that  you  are  going  to  bag  them.  (Laughter.)  When  the  thirty  days 
are  up  and  you  have  done  the  story  of  the  bag,  if  the  bag  is  empty  so 
much  the  better  ;  the  ten  thousand  men  will  live  to  fight  again . 
(Laughter.)  Give  the  enemy  abundant  time  to  know  you  are  coming, 
and  never  take  him  foul.  Carefully  guard  his  property,  for  that  is 
sacred  ;  send  a  large  number  of  your  soldiers  for  this  service,  and  be 
especially  careful  of  biped  property,  which  is  movable.  Continue  this 
until  the  enemy  is  so  fortified  that  he  is  too  strong  to  take,  and  is  likely 
to  take  you,  then  change  your  base.  (Laughter.)  It  is  an  interesting 
operation.  (Laughter.)  If  the  enemy  gets  tired  of  this  and  attacks 
you,  follow  him  at  a  respectful  distance.  If  he  corners  you  and  you 
can't  get  out  of  it,  fight  him,  and  as  you  have  good  and  brave  soldiers 
you  will  whip  him.  But  don't  follow  him  too  closely,  that  is  ungener- 
ous ;  let  him  go  over  the  river,  give  him  a  month  to  recover.  If  he 
be  disheartened,  and  his  army  is  broken,  and  you  send  him  back 
howling  into  rebeldom,  wait  until  he  has  recovered. 

It  is  an  easy  thing  to  answer  the  question,  "  How  not  to  do  it,  and 
how  to  continue  the  war."  So  many  have  practiced  this  interesting 
game,  that  a  war  that  would  not  have  lasted  a  single  year,  had  the  true 
strength  of  this  country  been  exerted  as  the  force  of  one  man,  has  been 
perpetuated  until  the  present  time,  and  may  be,  should  this  continue,  for 
years  to  come.  But  this  will  not  continue.  This  whole  class  of  men  I 
have  been  referring  to,  have  grown  wiser.  They  find  that  all  that  kind 
of  thing  can  be  seen  through,  and  that  there  is  a  vast  amount  of  com- 
mon sense  in  American  society,  and  that  while  that  game  may  be  played 


38 

rrpon  them  for  a  little  while,  we  are  apt  to  look  the  thing  right  into 
the  eye  and  before  long  come  to  a  just  and  honest  conclusion-  and 
Congressmen  who  act  in  this  way  soon  go  up  to  Canada  or  some  other 
place.  (Laughter.)  Legislators  of  this  kind  don't  go  back  j  they 
board  at  home  next  winter.  (Laughter.)  Governors  that  pursue  this 
eours-e,  don*t  find  votes  enough  to  reinstate  them  ;  generals  that  delay 
battles  in  this  style  quit  before  long  ans!  go  into  a  business  that  pays 
better — making  out  presidencies.  (Applause.)  We  bring  m  a  new  class 
of  men.  We  have  such  men  now  as  Grant.  (Applause.)  United  States 
Grant.  (Applause.)  U.  S.  Grant,  f Laughter.)  Never  Surrender 
Grant.  (Applause.)  Always  Ready  Grant.  | Applause.)  Uncle 
Sam  Grant.  (Applause.)  That  is  the  kind  of  men  that  knows  how  to 
do  it,  and  that  has  never  wasted  his  time  in  the  miserable  art  how  not 
to  do  it.  We  have  a  Meade — that  is  a  very  gentle  drink  to  take  in 
summer,  but  it  will  be  strong  Meade  next  summer.  (Applause  and 
laughter.)  We  have  a  Butler  f applause)  who  has  started  out  from  the 
commencement  just  about  right.  He  understood  this  war,  because  he 
helped  to  make  it,  (Laughter  and  applause.)  He  knew  its  character 
and  spirit  as  well  as  any  man  knows  his  own  e-hild,  but  in  this  General 
Butler  there  is  a  great  American  spirit.  When  Jefferson  Davis  reported 
his  determination  to  carry  out  Secession,  said  Butler,  "Mr.  Davis, 
we'll  whip  yoia  to  death  if  you  do."  u  No,"  said  Mr.  Davis,  "  the 
Yankees  are  cowards."  "No,"  said  Butler,  "we'll  annihilate  you, 
and  I'll  be  one  to  lead  in  the  work.'"  (Applause.)  And  he  has  been 
leading  ever  since.  If  yon  will  give  us  a  few  more  men  after  this 
stripe,  that  have  no  future  prospects  to  look  after,  but  have  the  only 
grand  work  in  view  of  whipping  out  the  Rebellion  from  our  land,  it  will 
be  but  a  short  time  until  the  mighty  strength  of  the  government  will 
show  itself  ia  the  conquest  of  her  foe. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  positive  side  of  the  question.  We  have  seen  %. 
enough  how  not  to  do  it.  All  wars  must  come  to  an  e1ad,  and  must 
come  to  an  end,  too,  by  some  agreement  on  terms  reached  between 
the  belligerent  parties ;  and  we  are  all  anxiously  looking  forward  to 
the  time  when  we  shall  see  at  least  the  coming  of  the  end  of  this  great 
contest.  I  think  there  are  three  ways  of  getting  out  of  this  war.  I 
can  conceive  of  no  other  than  three.  The  first  is  by  separation ;  by 
acknowledging  the  right  of  disunion,  and  submitting  to  the  disruption 
of  the  Republic  ;  and  we  have  some  who,  of  course,  desire  this  result 
and  are  fighting  for  it ;  and  yet  it  is  altogether  appropriate  to  specify 
who  are  the  men  who  desire  a  disruption  of  the  Union.  When  I  turn 
attention  to  the  North,  I  don't  believe  we  iiave  any  class  or  body  of 


39 

men  who  are  disunionists.  I  think  we  have  some  men  as  individuals, 
some  emissaries  of  the  South,  perhaps  hired  and  paid  for  their  services 
rendered  to  the  South,  who  are  engaged  in  doing  all  they  can  to  bring 
about  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  ;  yet  I  have  never  for  a  single  moment 
thought  that  we  had  any  political  party  that  desired  this  result  in  the 
North.  I  know  that  some  people  hastily  charge  on  the  Democratic 
party  this  intention,  or  state  at  least  that  the  Democratic  party  would 
as  leave  see  the  Union  disrupted  as  not  to  have  it  restored  in  their  own 
particular  way,  and  in  such  a  way  as  would  again  give  to  them  the 
government  of  our  country  ;  but  1  don't  believe  a  word  of  it.  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  Democratic  party  aims  at  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union.  I  have  never  thought  so  for  a  single  moment.  I  know  that 
party  is  a  great  political  affair ;  I  know  it  is  exceedingly  acute  and  far- 
seeing  ;  I  know  it  has  the  best  politicians  in  this  nation  ;  I  know  they 
can  lay  their  schemes  a  little  wider,  a  little  longer,  and  a  little  more 
accurately  than  any  other  political  organization  in  the  country ;  they 
have  been  doing  so  for  years,  and  are  well  skilled  in  the  work.  I 
should  lose  my  confidence  in  the  great  Democratic  party  if  it  was  not 
engaged  in  the  same  interesting  business  now ;  if  it  were  not  in  these 
great  times  looking  forward  to  the  future ;  yet  we  can  see  no  possible 
motive  why  any  national  party  this  side  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line 
should  for  a  moment  desire  the  disruption  of  this  Union.  The  doom  I 
think  of  the  Democratic  party  would  be  written  forever  if  the  line  of 
division  was  drawn  upon  that  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  They  need  the 
South :  they  need  the  Southern  influence  ;  and  instead  of  desiring  a  final 
disruption  of  the  Republic,  they  would  aim  at  such  a  conclusion  as  will 
bring  back  again  into  the  field  this  great  political  organization,  the 
power  and  influence  of  the  South.  It  is  sometimes  charged  upon  one 
wing  of  the  Republican  party,  that  they  desire  disunion  ;  and  the  only 
copperhead  meeting  I  ever  attended — I  didn't  intend  to  tell  you  that, 
(laughter)  but  I  did  attend  one  once,  a  very  interesting  one  that  was 
reported  here  in  Trenton  as  a  grand  success.  It  was  held  up  here 
somewhere  a  few  miles  above  Pennington ;  some  two  or  three  hundred 
were  gathered  together,  and  three  very  celebrated  speakers  were 
present.  It  was  reported  here  next  day  as  a  grand  convention  of 
several  thousands  !  There  were  only  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  men 
women  and  children  (laughter)  at  the  meeting,  it  was  charged  upon  ene 
wing  of  the  Republican  party  that  they  desired  the  disruption  of  the 
Union,  and  the  proofs  brought  forward  were  the  expressions  of  some 
radical  men  in  the  United  States — that  have  been  radical  for  years  in 
the  past  and  I  presume  are  radical  to-day — but  who  never  in  any 


40 

single  respect  represented  the  Republican  party.  The  men  quoted  were 
Wendell  Phillips  and  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  and  many  of  their  say- 
ings, made  a  number  of  years  ago,  were  brought  forward  to  prove  that 
the  Republican  party  was  aiming  steadily  and  uniformly  at  the  disrup- 
tion of  the  Union.  We  know  that  some  of  these  radical  men  a  few 
years  ago — and  they  may  stand  on  the  same  ground  this  day — took  this 
position,  that  "  if  there  was  no  other  way  to  correct  the  wrong  of 
bondage  to  the  black  man — if  there  was  no  way  to  stop  this  terrible 
influence  of  a  compact  Southern  oligarchy  ruling  over  the  nation,  its 
politics  and  government,  than  by  a  disruption  of  the  Republic,  they  were 
willing  to  see  the  Republic  rent  asunder,  rather  than  this  gigantic  evil 
and  these  influences  should  continue  in  the  nation."  But  I  presume  that 
all  concede  to  the  Republican  party  an  honest  intention  to  carry  on  this 
war  to  restore  the  Union.  In  the  North  I  cannot  think  we  have  an 
element  amounting  to  any  strength  that  desires  this  war  to  terminate  in 
disunion.  When  we  pass  South  of  this  line  we  find  disunionists.  When 
we  go  back  to  trace  the  history  of  the  war,  we  find  even  in  the  Southern 
country  men  who  loved  the  Union.  There  were  then  two  parties.  In 
the  first  place — you  must  permit  me  to  recognize  humanity  wherever  I 
find  it  with  the  habiliments  and  the  appurtenances  of  man — I  say  in  the 
first  place  we  have  four  millions  of  men  in  the  South  that  certainly 
never  desired  the  disruption  of  this  Union ;  iwho  felt  that  their  future, 
their  liberty,  their  welfare,  lay  in  the  continuance  of  this  Union.  Then 
we  had  a  vastness  in  the  South  of  what  is  called  "  white  trash,"  or 
ignorant  white  people,  who  knew  nothing  and  cared  nothing  about  the 
Union.  They  were  profoundly  ignorant  of  the  movements  going  on  in 
the  nation,  and  were  only  taught  the  one  grand  element  of  their  creed, 
to  hate  the  Yankee,  and  they  didn't  know  why.  Here  is  another  vast 
class  that  had  no  interest  in  the  disruption  of  the  Union  ;  and  when  the 
facts  come  to  be  known,  perhaps  there  are  but  two  states  that  honestly 
and  truly  voted  themselves  out  of  this  Union. 

Let  us  turn  our  attention  to  Louisiana :  we  have  never  had  a  report 
of  the  vote  taken  upon  which  the  Act  of  Secession  was  passed.  We 
turn  to  Tennessee,  and  the  majority  was  against  the  Act  of  Secession. 
Texas  was  the  same  as  Louisiana.  Never  to  this  day  has  there  been  a 
vote  of  the  people.  The  slaveholders  were  tired  of  the  Union  and 
wished  to  retire  from  connection  with  this  great  government.  There 
are  three  hundred  thousand  men,  three  hundred  thousand  slaveholders, 
that  are  the  disunionists  of  this  country  ;  and  it  makes  me  feel  some- 
times exceedingly  indignant  when  I  see  that  in  this  nation  of  more  than 
thirty  millions  of  soulss  three  hundred  thousand  slaveholders,  and  even 


41 

that  number  could  be  eliminated  and  reduced  down  to  half  of  it,  have 
risen  up  in  this  gigantic  Rebellion,  laying  its  foundation  in  wrongs, 
spreading  its  power  in  falsehood,  distilling  lies  and  perjury  among  the 
ignorant  masses,  awakened  up  so  large  a  portion  of  all  this  country 
against  the  best  government  that  God  ever  gave  to  men  !  (Applause.) 
We  have,  then,  I  say,  about  three  hundred  thousand  people  that  are  the 
prime  movers — and  this  number  can  be  reduced  to  one-half  without  any 
difficulty — who  struggled  for  the  disruption  of  this  Union,  and  who  per- 
haps still  desire  it.  The  other  vast  majority  are  still  bound  in  their 
heart's  love  to  the  old  stars  and  stripes,  still  love  the  memory  of  our 
fathers,  still  cherish  one  common  history,  still  look  forward  to  the  per- 
manence of  our  government,  the  palladium  of  human  liberty,  down  to 
the  evening  of  time. 

We  have  other  enemies  who  desire  the  disruption  of  this  Union — 
enemies  who  have  been  working  to  bring  about  this  end  as  one  "  most 
devoutly  to  be  wished."  We  have  an  enemy  to  our  republican  institu- 
tions and  government  in  England,  and  to  the  great  principles  and  growth 
of  our  country,  to  the  grand  idea  that  man  ought  to  be  free,  because  he 
is  capable  of  being  free  and  governing  himself.  I  say  we  find  a  great 
enemy  to  all  these  things  in  Great  Britain,  and  doubtless  long  before 
this  time,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  hardy  yeomen  of  that  nation,  the 
honest  men  whose  hands  are  hardened  with  honest  labor,  the  industrious 
mechanics  who  rank  as  we  rank,  who  stand  on  the  common  level  of 
humanity,  and  who  understand  what  this  great  contest  means,  kept  per- 
petually saying  to  the  aristocrats  of  England,  "No,  this  war  is  for 
human  rights,  for  the  perpetuation  of  free  government,  and  you  must 
not  and  shall  not  interpose."  The  aristocracy  of  England  is  against 
us.  Only  two  weeks  ago  we  read  in  the  Times,  the  great  organ  of 
British  aristocracy,  an  honest  confession  that,  throughout  its  whole 
past  career  with  reference  to  this  country,  it  was  moved  by  the  one  sole, 
pusillanimous  thought  that  this  nation  was  growing  too  strong,  that  it 
was  getting  to  be  too  mighty  a  republic,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  divided  ; 
that  the  interests  of  England  demanded  that  this  young  giant  should 
not  continue  to  grow  into  such  great  strength. 

Cross  the  channel  again,  and  you 'find  a  subtle  and  keen  enemy  to 
our  republican  institutions  in  the  "  nephew  of  his  uncle,"  whose  only 
merit  lies  in  his  great  relative,  who  would  like  to  see  the  South  prevail 
over  the  North  ;  who  would  then  find  a  grand  opportunity  of  carrying 
on  his  Mexican  and  south-western  expeditions  on  this  continent.  Thero 
we  find  an  enemy ;  and  there  again,  among  the  stalwart  peasantry,  we 
have  friends  by  the  thousands,  who  say,  "  JVb,  no  emperor  and  no 


42 

aristocracy  shall  interfere  with  this  young  representative  of  free  humanity 
that  is  growing  up  into  a  strong  and  gigantic  life."  Well  may  it  be  said, 
God  is  on  the  side  of  free  institutions.  Eternal  right  is  on  the  side  of 
this  young  republic.  Humanity  in  its  true  and  common  impulses  the 
world  over  is  on  the  side  of  our  government,  and  against  the  perpetua- 
tion of  our  republic  no  emperor,  no  aristocracy  can  carry  out  their 
designs  in  the  face  of  feelings  like  these,  while  we  do  right  and  stand 
true  to  the  destiny  that  God  has  ordained  for  us.  (Applause.) 

You  see,  then,  after  all,  it  is  hardly  worth  while  to  discuss  the  ques- 
tion, Shall  this  Union  be  separated  ?  Why  should  it  separate  ?  At 
the  bidding  of  some  three  hundred  thousand  men  who  hold  property  in 
their  fellow  men  ?  For  the  mere  interests  of  England,  that  she  may 
remain  queen  and  mistress  of  the  ocean,  and  continue  to  dictate  to  the 
nations  ?  "At  the  bidding  of  Louis  Napoleon,  that  he  may  carry  on  his 
particular  schemes  of  aggrandizement  in  the  south-western  parts  of  this 
continent  ?  For  whom  should  we  disrupt  this  grand  and  glorious  Union 
that  the  God  of  heaven  gave  our  fathers,  to  descend  to  us  and  our  chil- 
dren ?  No,  never ;  never  can  we  for  one  moment  yield  the  point  in 
settling  this'  question  by  granting  the  secession  of  those  who  have  risen 
in  rebellion  against  the  government. 

We  have  men  whose  vigor  and  youth  are  passed  away,  who  are  terri- 
bly afraid  of  war,  terribly  afraid  of  taxes,  and  who  would,  at  almost  any 
price  you  can  mention,  buy  the  boon  of  peace,  even  saying  to  these 
men,  as  one  said  three  years  ago,  "  Erring  sisters,  go  in  peace." 
"JVb,"  I  say,  "erring  sisters,  come  back  and  behave  yourselves." 
(Applause.)  Why  can't  we  use  this  polite  language  and  disrupt  the 
republic  ?  I  answer — First,  God  never  intended  this  continent  to 
be  divided  into  little  petty  governments  ;  our  geography  and  history 
indicate  that  fact  plainly.  Take  down  your  map  and  look  upon  this  fair 
province  that  God  has  given  us.  He  has  stretched  out  its  streams,  its 
lakes,  and  mountain  courses,  so  that  while  emigration  passes  from  East 
to  West  on  lines  of  latitude,  all  the  great  streams  of  our  country  run 
from  the  North  to  the  South.  The  mountain  ranges  extend  from  North 
to  South.  These  streams  carry  the  benedictions  of  the  North  to  the 
extreme  Southern  shores.  These  range  of  mountains,  with  their  solemn 
echoing,  catch  the  voices  of  the  North  and  sound  them  far  down  again 
into  the  South.  Where,  in  the  geography  of  the  country,  could  you 
draw  a  dividing  line  ?  Nowhere  has  the  God  of  Nature  made  barriers 
or  reared  division  lines  that  would  say,  "  divide  and  here  be  t/iou 
separate." 

I  say  again,  No,  for  not  only  does  the  geography  of  our  country  forbid 


43 

it,  but  to  admit  the  idea  of  secession  would  be  to  lay  down  for  all  future 
time  that  most  suicidal  doctrine  in  our  country  that  as  soon  as  one  party 
is  dissatisfied  rebellion  is  the  cure.  If  there  is  one  natural  barrier  that 
would  serve  for  a  dividing  line,  it  is  the  great  Rocky  Mountain  range. 
Let  us  acknowledge  the  independence  of  the  South,  and  in  a  few  years 
more  the  interest  of  the  great  western  countries  might  make  it  apparent 
to  some  that  it  would  be  better  for  them  to  separate  from  the  govern- 
ment at  Washington.  No  government  can  live  under  the  doctrine  of 
secession.  When  our  fathers  made  the  compact  of  union,  it  was  made 
perpetual.  Tt  was  intended  as  a  permanent  arrangement.  They  were 
not  madmen.  Who  could  for  a  moment  suppose  that  men  laying  the 
foundation  of  a  grand  commonwealth  could  plant  in  the  midst  of  this 
foundation  an  element .*that  was  to  lead  to  the  disruption  and  destruction 
of  the  nation  itself? 

We  dare  not  accept  this  doctrine  again,  because  it  would  not  meet 
the  occasion  in  settling  the  disputes  between  the  two  parties.  I  always 
thought  that  Wendell  Phillips  and  Lloyd  Garrison,  and  all  that  party, 
made  a  great  mistake  when  they  talked  about  disunion,  and  used  to  say 
they  would  rather  see  the  country  disrupted  than  that  the  Northern 
people  should  continue  complicated  with  the  great  evil  of  the  South. 
What  would  (his  do  towards  ending  the  difficulties  ?  Could  we  live 
peacefully  together  as  enemies,  when  we  could  not  live  together  as 
friends  ?  Could  we  not  agree  on  the  slave  question  when  we  were  one, 
living  under  one  constitution,  one  government?  How,  then,  can  we 
agree  on  this  question  when  we  should  have  drawn  a  line  to  separate  the 
two  sections  ?  What  terms  could  we  make  with  regard  to  this  slave 
question  ?  We  now  consider  this  an  independent  country.  We  now 
have  a  foreign  nation  lying  at  our  side.  Grant  them  all  they  could  ask, 
and  lead  back  to  bondage  their  liberated  slaves,  would  you  consent  to 
be  huntsmen  for  your  fellow-men  ?  And  if  you  did,  how  long  would  it 
be  before  a  nation,  starting  out  in  its  rebellious  career,  would  cease  to 
be  the  sister  Ilepublic  on  our  South,  and  would  become  what  it  aims  to 
become  to-day,  a  grand  monarchy,  frowning  upon  us  from  our  Southern 
borders  ?  Why  those  men  are  tickled  to  death  by  the  idea  of  kingdoms, 
dukedoms,  and  earldoms.  King  Davis  would  sound  mellifluously  in  the 
trumpet  of  fame.  Earl  Mason  and  Duke  Slidell  would  be  grand  titles. 
(Laughter.)  You  smile  at  this  ;,  yet  it  is  the  inspiring  thought  of  these 
men.  "We  are  tired,"  said  they,  "  of  this  rank  Democracy ,  we  are 
tired  of  this  Republicanism.  It  is  a  failure."  /It  was  a  decided  failure 
with  them ;  but  we  will  teach  them  that  it  is  not  a  failure,  but  that  it  is 
a  power,  and  the  most  intense  kind  of  power  that  can  be  concentrated  for 


44 

the  government  and  perpetuation  of  the  Union.  I  say  we  would  soon 
have  a  monarchy  at  our  side.  My  good  old  friend  would  then  say,  u  Oh 
these  horrible  taxes,"  for  there  would  be  far  greater  taxes  when  the 
country  would  be  under  the  necessity  of  maintaining  a  standing  army  of 
several  hundred  thousands,  stretching  along  the  border  line  between 
these  two  nations.  You  talk  about  the  loss  of  life.  There  would  be 
greater  loss  of  life  in  the  perpetual  hostilities  that  would  arise  between 
these  two  portions  of  this  nation.  God  never  meant  two  people  should 
occupy  the  country  that  is  appropriated  to  this  republican  government, 
and  no  matter  who  those  two  people  are,  this  continent,  the  whole  bound- 
less continent,  is  ours.  (Applause.)  No  power  can  ever  divide  it.  It 
is  settled  in  the  counsels  of  the  Almighty.  (Applause.)  Civilization 
says  no.  A  voice  comes  from  the  humble  men  of  England,  of  Ireland, 
of  France,  and  of  all  Europe,  saying,  "  Never  yield  ground  to  this  up- 
rising of  barbarism."  Thousands  of  these  men  send  us  their  letters, 
their  commendations,  their  sympathies,  telling  us  our  interests  are 
staked  with  yours,  and  humanity  itself  lies  trembling  in  the  balance  of 
this  great  war.  "You  are  fighting,"  say  the  noble  spirits  of  Europe, 
"  you  are  fighting  not  America's  battle  alone,  but  the  battle  of  humanity. 
End  it  j  whip  out  of  your  country  this  spirit  of  insurrection.  Crush  it, 
this  wrong  that  has  been  a  stain  on  your  escutcheon  all  through  your 
history ;  and  in  the  future  the  God  of  heaven  will  smile  upon  you,  and 
use  you  as  He  has  ever  intended  to  use  you,  as  the  center  of  a  higher 
and  nobler  civilization."  (Applause.)  Disunion  in  this  day,  when  the 
nations  are  moving  forward  to  embrace  each  other  in  their  arms  !  Dis- 
union in  America,  this  type  and  model  of  national  life  !  Why,  it  is  the 
last  place  on  earth  where  any  such  principles  should  enter  the  minds  of 
the  people.  Disunion  here,  when  Europe  is  coming  nearer  together, 
and  we  seem  to  be  nearing  that  time  when  nation  will  hail  nation  as  its 
brother  ?  Brejik  up  this  grand  Republic  at  a  time  when  God  in  His 
mighty  Providence  seems  roiling  on  events  for  the  brighter  and  better 
days  that  shall  acknowledge  the  brotherhood  of  men  throughout  the 
entire  earth  ?  JVb,  never.  Every  interest  appertaining  to  our  nation, 
to  humanity,  to  reason,  to  everything  else,  says,  "  However  long  this 
contest  may  be,  we  must  at  least  never  yield  it  up  by  granting  the 
secession  to  the  South."  (Applause.) 

Now  come  some  enemies  to  the  government,  or  rather,  as  they  please 
to  call  themselves,  enemies  of  the  administration,  and  they  are  not 
small  in  number,  who  say,  "  we  know  it  will  never  do  to  allow  this 
nation  to  be  broken  in  two,  for  that  would  be  the  end  and  ruination  of 
our  great  republican  institutions ;  but  we  should  end  this  war  by  a 


45 

suitable,  and  appropriate  compromise  with  them  as  soon  as  possible,  and 
recover  our  disaffected  brothers  and  friends  back  to  the  fellowship  and 
amenities  of  our  common  family."  Here,  I  say  we  have  a  large  class  of 
men,  and  a  great  many  of  them  too  are  honest  men,  who  think  that 
about  the  only  way  to  end  this  war,  and  that  the  true  way  is  to  offer 
terms  of  conciliation  to  those  in  rebellion,  and  such  terms  as  they  will 
accept,  and  consent  to  come  back  and  unite  their  fate  and  history  again 
with  ours. 

But  there  are  some  men  in  these  ranks  that  are  not  honest  men  ;  and 
who  do  not  move  in  this  direction  out  of  a  pure  love  of  the  country, 
a  pure  desire  for  peace ;  and  as  I  desired  to  speak  historically  and 
plainly  on  last  Tuesday  evening,  permit  me  to  speak  plainly  at  this 
point  to-night.  I  think  that  this  cry  for  a  compromise  is  a  political 
cry,  and  instead  of  being  (I  make  great  exceptions)  an  honest  declara- 
tion of  the  heart  for  peace  and  the  adjustment  of  our  country's  difficul- 
ties, it  is  simply  the  plotting  and  scheming  of  politicians  for  the  future 
welfare  and  position  of  their  party.  Let  me  illustrate  this.  About  a 
year  ago,  I  was  in  conversation  with  a  prominent  citizen  of  Trenton 
here,  and  he  accosted  me  with  this  question,  "What  do  you  think  of 
the  war  now-a-days  ?"  Well,  you  remember  about  a  year  ago  we  were 
blue  about  the  war.  I  was  decidedly  blue.  "  Well,"  said  I,  "  I  am 
a  little  down."  "  Well,"  said  he,  "  what  do  you  think  will  be  the  end 
of  this  thing?"  "Well,"  I  answered,  "  I  think  this  will  be  the  end. 
I  think  designing  men  will  so  far  interfere  with  the  movements  of  the 
government,  and  stay  the  progress  of  our  arms,  and  hold  back  this  war 
month  after  month,  and  year  after  year,  until  we  get  into  another  great 
Presidential  campaign,  and  then  you  will  most  likely  elect  a  Democratic 
President,  and  put  a  new  party  into  power,  and  create  a  new  adminis- 
tration, and  then  'you  will  go  forward  with  your  old  compeer  of  the 
South,  and  offer  terms  of  concession,  and  they  will  accept  them.  You 
will  then  shake  hands,  take  a  drink,  and  it  will  be  all  over."  "  Now," 
said  he,  "  you  and  I  are  pretty  much  alike,  after  all."  "  Yes." 
"  Well,"  said  he,  "  I  am  glad  you  have  come  to  that  ground.  You 
and  I  hold  the  same  opinion."  "  Yes,"  said,  I, "  that  is  my  opinion,  and 
that  is  where  it  will  end.  But  there  is  as  great  a  difference  between 
you  and  me  still,  as  between  the  north  and  south  pole."  "What  is  the 
difference ?"  said  he;  "I  believe  what  you  believe."  "  Yes,"  said  I, 
"  I  believe  it — sorrowfully  and  sadly  believe  it  j  but  you  hope  for  it, 
and  work  for  it.  That  is  the  difference."  And  that  is  precisely  the 
difference. 

I  come  only  to  look  in  the  face  of  this  question,  not  for  the  sake 
of  politicians,  for  they  are  keener  than  I  am,  but  for  the  sake  of  honest 


46 

American  citizens;  and  as  I  look  into  the  face  of  this  question  of 
compromise,  I  am  compelled  as  an  honest  patriot  to  say  with  regard  to 
this,  as  with  regard  to  a  separation,  "  JVb  /"  this  war  cannot  and  ought 
not  to  end  by  compromises  with  the  South.  (Applause.)  I  looked 
into  the  South  up  as  far  as  we  could  get  the  mail.  I  got  Southern 
papers  and  read  them  over.  I  found  in  them  the  bitter  spirit  breathed 
out  by  these  men.  There  was  no  indication  there  that  the  storm  would 
ever  end  in  compromise  ;  no  terms  to  come  back  to  the  Union.  They 
gloried  in  secession,  and  considered  the  act  final  and  forever:  they  said 
no  power  of  arms  could  bring  them  back  into  association  again  with  the 
Yankee  and  with  the  Northern  government,  I  look  to  this  day  as  far 
as  I  can,  and  1  never  heard  of  one  single  offer  of  compromise  or  asking 
for  terms  on  the  part  of  the  South ;  but  I  find  on  the  contrary  only  in 
the  North,  and  that  too  in  a  class  of  men  whose  associations  hitherto 
have  been  intimately  connected  with  the  South,  throwing  out  this  doc- 
trine of  compromise  and  adjustment  to  the  South.  The  South  never 
asked  for  it.  In  the  midst  of  death  and  desolation,  with  poverty  and 
want  staring  them  in  the  face,  no  man  yet — except  those  who  have  come 
into  our  lines  and  have  never  been  traitors  to  the  country— no  one  who 
has  lifted  his  hand  in  this  Rebellion,  has  asked  any  terms  or  pointed  to 
any  by  which  he  could  be  brought  back  again  into  the  Union. 

Shall  we  end  this  war  by  any  compromise  with  the  South  ?  What  I 
mean  by  compromise  is  making  such  concessions  to  them  as  will  satisfy 
them,  and  will  bring  them  back  to  their  allegiance  and  submission  to  the 
government  of  the  country.  I  have  answered  no*  The  first  reason  is, 
they  have  never  asked  for  it  5  and  I  can  look  upon  it  in  no  other  light 
than  as  pusillanimous  in  the  extreme,  for  a  great  government  to  go 
forward  in  this  gigantic  llebellion,  and  call  these  men  to  come  back  by 
offering  terms  of  compromise,  and  thus  purchasing  their  friendship. 

Let  me  draw  your  attention  to  a  point  in  which  lies  a  sophistry  which  is 
played  on  the  minds  of  many  men  in  these  war  times.  There  is  a  great 
difference  between  repentant  rebels  coming  forward  to  ask  terms  from 
the  government  against  which  they  have  rebelled,  and  that  government 
coming  forward  and  offe>  ing  terms  to  rebels  still  in  arms.  Where  in 
history  have  you  read  of  a  government  that  came  forward  to  rebels  yet 
in  arms,  pressing  every  resource  at  their  command  into  the  service  ©f 
treason;  where  have  you  yet  seen  a  government,  unless  that  government 
was  powerless  or  subdued,  that  came  forward  and  sued  for  terms  at 
the  hands  of  rebels  ?  Shall  we,  this  new  born  nation  of  Freedom,  this 
great  Republic,  shall  we  teach  this  pusillanimous  stooping  of  the  govern- 
ment, to  come  and  beg  at  the  hands  of  traitors  in  arms  ?  No,  never, 


47 

never!  (Applause.)  You  may  say  it  is  philanthropy.  No,  it  would 
be  meanness .  to  the  utmost  extreme.  It  would  be  philanthropy  that 
would  bring  eternal  infamy  and  disgrace  upon  the  nation.  Here  is 
just  the  point  where  that  grand  message  that  we  read  awhile  ago  coming 
from  a  certain  governer  that  called  a  certain  class  of  people  his  friends, 
(laughter)  in  which  he  played  off  this  great  sophistry  upon  the  amnesty 
proclamation  of  the  President  of  the  United  States.  I  like  that  amnesty 
proclamation  very  much.  I  think  it  is  just  about  the  thing.  It  is  just 
about  as  far  as  the  President  ought  to  have  gone  to  maintain  the  dignity 
and  honor  of  the  government.  He  could  have  gone  no  farther.  What 
was  the  point  in  the  grand  message  that  pleased  some  people  in  the 
month  of  December  ?  That  amnesty  means  nothing,  it  offers  nothing  to 
these  men.  It  selects  a  party.  It  cries  out  to  one-tenth  of  the  people  in 
the  South,  if  you  come  back  and  lay  down  your  arms  we  will  receive 
you  into  the  government  again  ;  you  may  organize  your  legislatures, 
elect  your  governors,  and  take  your  places  in  the  Union  with  all  your 
rights  sacred,  except  one  alone.  I  say  that  was  a  generous  offer  com- 
ing from  a  government  to  rebels  in  arms.  Mr.  Lincoln  said,  "  I  do  not 
say  that  these  are  the  only  terms  that  shall  be  offered  to  men  returning 
to  their  allegiance."  He  knew  if  the  men  would  ground  their  arms,  if 
they  would  cease  their  treason  against  the  government,  and  come  for- 
ward and  say,  ' ( now  we  are  ready  to  come  back,  what  terms  will  you 
give  us  ?"  then  would  have  been  the  time,  and  not  till  then,  to  make 
large  and  generous  terms.  Let  Mr.  Davis  come,  let  the  Masons,  the 
Slidells  and  Cobbs,  come  and  say,  "  We  are  done  with  the  Rebellion, 
now  what  will  the  government  offer  as  terms  of  concession,"  and  you 
will  find  as  big  a  heart  as  ever  beat  in  one  of  the  largest  men  that  ever 
lived  open  to  receive  them  on  the  most  generous  terms  the  government 
could  offer.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  That  is  my  first  reason.  They 
have  not  come  forward  to  ask  for  compromise. 

We  cannot  compromise  because  of  the  large  multitude  of  men  in  the 
South  that  would  be  sacrificed  by  this  very  means.  There  are  men 
in  the  South  who  have  never  sympathized  with  this  Rebellion,  and 
others  little  connected  with  the  great  evil  of  the  nation.  They  have 
loved  our  history  and  love  our  nation  until  this  day.  They  have 
spoken  out  boldly  and  fearlessly  against  this  outrage  of  the  nation- 
These  are  the  men  that  would  be  sacrificed  to  the  Union  by  a  compro- 
mise. Said  the  Governor  of  New  York  in  his  note  to  the  President, 
"  it  is  selecting  a  party."  To  be  sure  it  is  selecting  a  party  j  but  a 
party  who  stood  true  to  the  government.  Why  should  he  not  have 
said,  "  as  soon  as  yon  can  rally  one-tenth  of  the  population  we  will 


48 

acknowledge  you  as  true  and  loyal  citizens  of  the  United  States." 
Compromises  would  inflict  calamities  for  years  to  come.  There  is  a 
passage  in  the  good  old  book  which  was  recorded  of  a  rebellion  long 
ago,  complaining  of  those  who  would  heal  too  lightly  the  hurt  of  the 
people,  and  which  applies  to  this  Rebellion.  I  am  not  ready,  for 
one,  to  enter  into  terms  of  compromise  with  the  men  that  created  this 
Rebellion.  I  want  them  punished  severely. 

One  of  the  strange  things  of  this  war  is  the  difficulty  with  which  we 
realize  the  enormity  of  the  crime  committed  by  these  men.  We  may 
love  their  souls,  and  if  they  would  come  forward  and  be  honest  citizen* 
of  the  United  States  we  would  share  our  last  loaf  of  bread  with  Jeff. 
Davis  himself;  but  Jeff.  Davis,  arch  traitor,  and  we,  are  enemies  so  long 
as  he  is  arch  traitor,  (applause)  or  any  other  man  in  the  South  so  long 
as  he  goes  against  the  government  of  our  country  and  against  hu- 
manity. We  talk  to-day  of  these  slaveholders — "  Oh,  they  are  our  bro- 
thers." They  are  bad  brothers  then,  and  need  whipping.  We  say, 
"  they  have  been  associated  with  us  in  the  past."  So  they  have,  and 
we  are  bad  teachers  or  we  would  have  taught  them  better  things. 
They  have  plotted  for  more  than  thirty  years  for  this  wrong,  to  let 
loose  the  dogs  of  war  upon  this  peaceful  land,  scattering  death  and 
desolation  over  the  plains  of  this  country ;  put  thousands  of  families 
into  mourning ;  opened  up  hundreds  of  thousands  of  graves  to  their 
fellow  men ;  shed  seas  of  blood  in  accomplishing  one  of  the  most 
damnable  schemes  that  ever  was  conceived  by  the  mind  of  man ;  and 
yet  these  sickly  philanthropists  come  forward  and  say,  "  don't  hurt 
them."  They  ought  to  be  hurt.  They  deserve  to  be  hurt.  Men 
who  have  awakened  anguish  and  sorrow,  and  started  tears,  and  spread 
desolation  and  havoc  throughout  this  land,  deserve  the  execration  of 
men  down  to  the  end  of  time.  (Applause.)  I  have  said  it  is  almost 
impossible  for  us  (but  I  don't  know  why,  it  must  be  because  of  the 
generous  principles  of  the  government  under  which  we  live,)  to  realize 
the  crime  of  treason.  Treason !  it  is  the  blackest  deed  that  can  be 
committed  in  the  sight  of  heaven.  Treason  !  it  is  the  forfeiture  of  every 
right  that  appertains  to  man.  But  what  kind  of  treason  is  this  ? 
Treason  of  the  deepest,  darkest,  and  blackest  die.  Treason  against  the 
noblest  government  the  world  has  had  in  all  its  history !  Treason 
against  the  brightest  hopes  of  humanity  !  Treason  against  the  most 
plainly  written  indications  of  Divine  Providence  itself!  Why  He  has 
not  let  the  thunderbolt  fall  upon  this  people  in  the  very  act  of  so  terrible 
a  treason,  I  know  not — that  must  lie  in  the  counsels  of  the  Almighty 
himself.  No,  I  recall  that.  Most  fearfully  has  the  Judge  of  all  the 


49 

earth  let  His  thunderbolts  fall  upon  this  guilty  people.  I  pity  their 
plains  drenched  in  blood ;  I  pity  their  soil  upturned  by  the  ploughshare 
of  war;  I  pity  their  empty  and  desolate  households,  their  poverty- 
stricken  land.  Ah,  yes  !  they  have  drawn  down  upon  themselves  a 
terrible  judgment  from  the  hand  of  God. 

I  have  another  reason  why  I  cannot  go  this  compromise  doctrine. 
It  is  this,  /  am  afraid  oj  it.  I  am  afraid  to  try  it.  I  don't  want  the 
South  to  come  back  as  it  was  back  for  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  in  the 
past.  I  know  it  is  a  dangerous  thing  to  say  that  I  am  not  in  favor  of 
the  "  Union  as  it  was  ;"  and  yet  I  am  ready  to  say  it.  I  hope  that  we  shall 
never  have  again  this  Union  as  it  was.  (Applause.)  The  Union !  I 
would  give  my  life  for  it,  and  I  would  do  anything  in  my  power  to 
restore  to  peace  and  union  our  sorely  stricken  country ;  but  the  Union 
such  as  we  have  had  it  for  twenty  years  Heaven  cannot  smile  upon.  A 
Union  such  as  we  have  had,  would  be  but  to  rush  forward  again  in  the 
mad  career  of  political  strife,  to  end  in  a  few  years  more  in  another 
contest  more  bloody  and  terrible  than  this.  I  want  no  Union  with  the 
groans  of  four  millions  of  souls  going  up  to  the  throne  of  God.  (Ap- 
plause.) I  want  no  Union  with  representatives  from  one  section  stand- 
ing upon  the  floor  of  Congress  pistoled  or  caned  to  command  votes, 
and  stamping  their  foot  upon  the  necks  of  Northern  freemen.  (Applause.) 
I  want  no  Union  in  which  I  can  travel  South  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line  only  at  the  peril  of  my  life.  (Applause.)  I  want  no  Union  where 
one  section  undertakes  to  claim  the  right  to  open  up  the  United  States 
mail  bags,  and  examine  all  their  contents,  to  see  if  anything  is  there 
incendiary  or  dangerous  in  its  character.  (Applause.)  I  want  no 
Union,  the  foundation  of  one  side  of  which  rests  on  hemp,  and  tar,  and 
feathers.  (Laughter.)  No,  let  us  have  such  a  Union  as  God  intended 
it  should  be ;  as  our  fathers  intended,  where  we  shall  have  free  speech, 
free  press,  and  jree  men  from  Maine  to  the  Gulf,  and  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific.  (Applause.)  Now  suppose  you  enter  into  a  compro- 
mise with  this  party ;  suppose  we  say  to  the  Southern  States,  "  Come 
back,  and  we'll  give  you  your  price  ;  we'll  grant  all  you  want,  we  per- 
haps made  a  mistake  on  the  slavery  question,  and  were  perhaps  in  too 
great  a  hurry," — and  if  they  should  come  back,  how  long  would  it  be 
until  all  these  demands,  all  these  intrigues  upon  liberty,  all  these 
disgraceful  acts  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  this  party 
scheming  and  political  machinery,  would  again  be  at  work  in  our  land  ? 
I  cannot  consent  to  a  compromise  that  only  lays  the  foundation  for 
future  troubles,  and  for  perpetual  infamy  and  disgrace  to  rest  upon  the 
nation. 
4 


50 

But  I  Lave  yet  another  reason  why  I  cannot  go  this  compromise. 
There  are  four  parties  in  this  contest.  Two  of  them  we  are  exceed- 
ingly prone  to  forget  and  ignore.  The  government  is  upon  one  side, 
itruggling  in  her  integrity ;  and  the  Rebellion  is  on  the  other,  gigantic 
and  mighty  in  her  spirit  of  revolution.  Between  the  two  lies  a  helpless 
race,  numbering  four  millions  of  people — a  third  party.  And  above 
them  all,  the  God  and  Father  of  all,  whose  eyes  look  down  upon  all  his 
children.  You  dare  not  compromise  with  wrong  when  parties  like  these 
are  in  the  field.  God  has  let  you  move  along  in  comparative  quiet 
these  eighty  years  in  the  past,  until  the  mad  tyrant  lifted  up  the  dagger 
to  strike  at  the  nation's  heart ;  then  God  seized  the  dagger  for  Himself, 
and  sent  it  back  to  the  heart  of  the  assassin.  (Applause.)  God  has 
come  upon  the  stage,  and  is  working  in  this  nation.  Who  has  not  heard 
the  stepping  of  His  feet  ?  Who  has  not  seen  the  moving  of  His  Divine 
hand  as  He  has  steadily  moved  forward  from  the  first  outbreaking  of 
this  war  until  now,  saying,  "  You  began  it,  and  /  will  end  it ;  let  my 
bondsmen  go ."  (Applause.)  Now  you  will  come  forward  in  the  face 
of  events  such  as  our  war  has  been  writing  during  the  past  two  and  a 
half  years,  and,  in  the  face  of  God,  cry  for  a  'pusillanimous  peace  by 
selling  four  millions  of  your  fellow-men!  The  heavens  would  grow 
dark  above  us,  and  infamy  eternal  from  all  the  nations  of  the  earth 
would  settle  upon  us.  You,  the  advocates  of  liberty !  You,  the  friends 
of  human  rights  !  You,  the  leading  nation  of  the  globe  !  You  that  are 
the  hope  of  the  future  ages  of  the  earth!  You  pusillanimously  stoop  to 
buy  peace  from  men  in  rebellion  by  selling  back  to  bondage  four  mil- 
lions of  your  helpless  fellow-men !  JVb  /  no  !  God  and  humanity  for- 
ever forbid  that  at  such  a  price  we  shall  buy  peace  in  our  land, 
(Applause.)  Have  you  any  other  compromise  to  offer?  Buy  peace 
with  what  ?  With  the  negro  ?  What  else  have  you  to  say  to  Davis, 
then  ?  "  Get  down  off  your  throne  and  we'll  give  you  Sambo."  What 
have  you  to  say  to  men  in  arms  ?  Down  with  your  arms  and  we'll  send 
the  nigger  back.  The  negro  is  not  yours  to  give,  and  God  will  not 
allow  him  to  be  sent  back,  except  with  broken  shackles.  Woe  to  this 
nation,  or  that  party,  that  dares  buy  back  again  these  rebels  at  the  price 
of  human  blood.  (Applause.) 

"You  cannot  allow  them  to  separate1?  JVb.  Cannot  compromise 
with  them  ?  JVb,  not  on  that  question.  What  then  ?  There  is  one 
way  left  yet.  What  is  it  ?  Whip  it  out  of  them.  (Long-continued 
and  loud  applause.)  That  is  about  the  true  doctrine.  (Applause.)  Go 
right  forward.  Whip  them  into  submission.  You  seem  to  understand 
the  thing  exactly.  (Laughter.)  I  wonder  why  I  was  invited  to  lecture 


51 

about  "How  to  get  out,"  when  you  all  know  how  to  get  out?  (Ap- 
plause.) You  see  the  point  as  well  as  I  do.  (Laughter.)  The  in- 
stincts of  common  honest  men  and  women  point  the  road  to  independence, 
to  liberty ;  and  that  road  is  by  gathering  together  the  strong  forces  of 
the  government  and  rolling  them  upon  this  Rebellion,  and  crushing  it 
beneath  the  power  of  the  nation. 

Now  I  am  in  favor  of  two  things  some  people  are  not  in  favor  of — 
coercion  and  subjugation.  If  you  would  ask  me  again  to  put  into  other 
words  what  I  have  said — what  is  the  true  method  of  getting  out  of  this 
war  2 — I  would  say  coercion  and  subjugation.  We  used  to  be  terribly 
frightened  over  these  two  words 5  yet,  when  we  come  to  look  at  them,  they 
are  a  mere  bug-bear  after  all.  Coercion  !  What  does  that  mean  ?  My 
wife  coerces  me  every  day  (laughter),  and  I  am  exceedingly  fond  of  the 
coercion.  My  little  children  coerce  me  every  day.  I  like  to  be  coerced. 
You  see  the  word  is  not  frightful.  It  is  altogether  in  its  application  it 
has  been  made  to  appear  so.  In  some  relations  it  is  delightful ;  in  others 
it  is  not  so  good.  In  this  war  it  is  simply  making  those  men  do  their 
duty  ;  making  them  behave  themselves ;  making  them  stop  the  Rebellion 
and  lay  down  their  arms  ;  making  them  become  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  and  whipping  them  until  they  do.  (Applause.)  I  have  been 
coerced  now  nearly  forty  years  by  this  government,  and  I  never  felt  it 
hard  ;  it  sets  easy.  Yet  the  government  coerces  you  and  me  every  day. 
We  don't  dare  to  steal.  Why  ?  Because  the  government  coerces  us. 
We  don't  dare  to  commit  murder.  Why  ?  Because  the  government 
coerces  us.  We  don't  dare  to  be  anything  else  than  honest,  peaceful 
citizens  of  the  state  and  of  the  United  States.  Why  ?  It  is  the  terrible 
government  that  is  coercing  us.  We  want  Jeff.  Davis  coerced  as  we 
are,  so  that  he  shall  not  steal,  and  shall  not  commit  murder,  and  shall 
not  rise  up  in  arms  against  the  government  j  that  he  shall  be  the  honest, 
straightforward  citizen  of  that  United  States  government  that  we  are, 
{ Applause.)  What  else  can  you  mean  by  subjugation  ?  Peace  needs 
no  buying.  You  don't  buy  war.  What  do  you  mean  by  subjugation  * 
We  mean  South  Carolina  shall  behave  herself  like  New  Jersey,  and 
shall  come  back  again  under  the  stars  and  stripes  (applause),  and  shall 
send  her  representatives  to  Washington  instead  of  Richmond,  and  shall 
move  forward  in  honest  obedience  to  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  under  which  she  was  made  all  that  she  is.  We  have  had  a 
terrible  outcry  against  coercing  and  subjugating  states.  Mr.  Lincoln'* 
idea  of  it  is  correct — to  whip  them  until  one-tenth  are  ready  to  come 
back,  then  receive  them,  and  let  that  be  a  state  of  honest,  true,  and 
Joyal  men.  (Applause  ) 


52 

Now  when  we  talk  about  war  as  a  means  of  bringing  the  war  to  an 
end,  some  say  "  you  have  become  bloodthirsty ;  you  have  become  im- 
bued with  the  spirit  of  war."     I  answer  JVb,  I  can  only  look  upon  it  as 
the  highest  Christianity,  and  I  can  only  see  in  it  the  purest  charity,  to 
go  vigorously  and  earnestly  at  work,  and  bring  it  to  an  end  as  speedily 
as  possible.     Bring  all  the  forces  of  this  great  government  to  bear  on 
this  Rebellion,  and  before  1864  closes  you  will  have  the  Rebellion 
closed,  and  this  waste  of  life  and  treasure  put  an  end  to.     It  is  this 
miserable  delaying,  this  holding  back,  this  lying  in  swamps  where 
soldiers  die  by  thousands,  this  wasting  of  life  and  treasure,  that  is  most 
cruel  and  impolitic.     It  is  true  charity  to  bring  forth  the  nation's 
strength  and  press  the  war  with  vigor  and  energy.     Do  you  want  the 
war  ended  before  1864  shall  end7?     Then  work  for  the  government. 
Rush  to  the  standard  of  the  nation.     Come  one,  come  all,  and  inarch 
down  to  the  South  in  one  grand  solid  phalanx.    Present  bristling  fronts 
of  bayonets  to  the  rebels  in  arms  ;  one  more  vigorous  and  stirring  effort, 
and  ere  this  year  passes  away  you  will  see  the  end  of  the  war,  and  that 
you  are  safely  out.     Let  us  consent  for  a  little  while  to  forget  party,  to 
forget  politics,  to  forget  the  offices  of  the  future,  and  stand  once  to- 
gether to  show  the  strength  of  our  government,  and  see  what  results 
can  be  accomplished  by  this  steady,  straightforward,  and  simple  course. 
I  think  we  have  done  remarkably  well  in  this  war.     It  has  not  been 
a  long  war  ;   we  have  not  yet  been  engaged  three  years  in  it.     It  has 
been  a  gigantic  struggle  ;  history  will  furnish  no  greater  one  in  all  its 
records  of  the  past  ;  and  yet  more  than  half  of  this  rebel  territory  is 
under  the  guardianship  of  the  glorious  old  banner  of  the  stars  and 
stripes.     (Applause.)     More  than  five  and  a  half  millions  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  rebel  states  are  again  under  the  shelter  of  the  government. 
Tennessee  is  nearly  all  back.     Kentucky  has  been  taught  her  serious 
and  sorrowful  lessons,  and  is  quiet,  and  peaceful,  and  loyal.     She  has 
had  enough  of  war  and  bloodshed.     My  Maryland  will  not  be  disturbed 
in  the  future.     Arkansas  is  ready  to  come  in.     Texas  is  moving,  and  a 
large  portion  of  Louisiana  is  ours.     North  Carolina  is  trembling  like  a 
needle  to  the  old  pole  that  she  used  to  love.     While  the  war  is  well 
nigh  over,  we  have  done  the  hardest  part  of  the  work.     Who  does  not 
see  plainly  that  to  conquer  the  first  half  of  the  Rebellion — and  the  first 
half  of  its  wicked  population — to  bring  them  again  over  from  this 
Rebellion  under  the  influence  and  power  of  the  government,  is  not  to 
have  accomplished  vastly  more  than  half  the  great  result.     I  think  the 
administration  has  done  well.     I  like  good  old  honest  Abraham  (ap- 
plause), who  started  out  into  the  world  exceedingly  poor.     The  Cobb* 


and  the  Floyds  left  him  almost  a  beggar  when  he  commenced  house- 
keeping— our  ships  were  all  away,  the  treasury  was  emptied,  and  rebel- 
Hem  was  staring  him  in  the  face ;  and  yet  how  calm  the  old  man  hag 
been  with  it  all !  I  have  admired  that  very  spirit  of  honest  joking  that 
sits  so  calmly  on  the  face  of  this  man,  who  has  the  weight  of  a  nation  upon 
him,  as  if  he  could  see  it  all  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  Trusting  in 
the  God  of  battles,  he  can  be  even  cheerful  while  he  guides  the  great 
ship  through  the  shoals  and  breakers.  (Applause.)  I  say  he  has  done  well 
in  the  course  of  these  three  years  past :  and  one  thing  allow  me  to  say  .at 
the  close,  I  think  the  best  method  of  getting  out  of  the  war  is  to  give  him 
another  turn  for  the  presidency.  (Applause.)  He  has  his  hand  in  it, 
is  quite  well  acquainted  with  it,  and  I  would  not  like  to  risk  new  hands. 
Give  Abraham  a  chance  to  finish,  and  we'll  enshrine  his  name  alongside 
the  first  and  best  of  all  names, — "  Abraham,  the  good  President"  who 
safely  led  us  out  from  the  terrible  realities  of  war.  For,  with  such  a 
cause  to  inspire  our  efforts,  and  with  the  smile  of  heaven  and  the  ap- 
proval of  the  common  instincts  of  humanity  all  over  the  world,  we  can- 
not fail.  We  will  come  out  of  it  rightly,  as  the  morning  sun  breaks  out 
of  the  dews  that  cloud  his  rising.  Come  out  of  it  ?  Yes  j  better  than 
when  we  went  into  it — a  strong,  a  free,  and  brave  people,  and  honored 
throughout  the  world  as  having  stood  true  to  our  government,  true  to 
our  God,  and  true  to  our  common  humanity.  (Long  and  enthusiastic 
applause.) 


